Severe pain, doctors cannot find the root cause, please help

Hi everyone,

I'm a 35-year-old woman and I've been suffering from chronic pelvic/bladder pain for the past 10 months. I was professional athlete, running and working out almost every day. The symptoms started suddenly one day, without any obvious trigger.
Height: 170cm/ 5.5ft
Weight: before was 55kg/ 121lbs, now lost due to pain to 48kg/105lbs
No smoking

Main symptoms:

  • Constant raw/burning pain behind the pubic bone and bladder, especially after urinating.
  • Pain often starts on the right side of my pelvis/groin and radiates toward the bladder. Feels like raw, burning, sometimes tingling pain
  • Pain is usually worst after emptying my bladder (very raw pain), but bladder filling also causes pain (dull pain)
  • Urinary urgency that comes and goes (not constant)
  • The pain is constant, however I had a few days with minor symptoms and 3 days without any pain at all (2 months ago)
  • Pain ranges from dull aching to burning, tingling and stabbing sensations. At the moment I'm experiencing extreme pain that lasts for 2 weeks already, cannot eat, cannot sleep because of it (possible trigger virus infection I had a month ago)
  • Extremelly changed diet, did not help with symptoms
  • Tried drink baking soda - no pain relieve
  • AZO (the painkiller for urine track) caused even more discomfort

Tests performed:

  • Multiple urine tests and cultures – all negative.
  • Pelvic ultrasound – normal bladder.
  • Abdominal organs ultrasound - all organs normal.
  • Blood test - normal
  • Pelvic MRI – only mild adenomyosis.
  • Evaluated by several gynecologists and urologists - all looks fine, no cysts, no visible endomtriosis, uterus normal size
  • Pelvic floor physiotherapist found no significant dysfunction.

Treatments I've tried:

  • 5 different antibiotics (no benefit).
  • Dienogest for 8 months (no improvement).
  • NSAIDs (does not help at all).
  • Solifenacin (partial improvement of urgency only).
  • TENS directly over the bladder (sometimes get some relief).
  • Amitriptyline and nortriptyline (poor tolerance due to side effects and paradoxically increased my pain).
  • Gabapentin 100 mg reduced the bladder pain a bit, but caused severe insomnia, dizziness, blurred vision and bowel spasms, so I'm unsure whether I can continue it.

The pain has become so severe that I've unintentionally lost over 7 kg /15lbs because I barely have any appetite.

Has anyone experienced something similar? Did it turn out to be:

  • Bladder Pain Syndrome / Interstitial Cystitis?
  • Pelvic nerve pain or nerve sensitization?
  • Endometriosis despite a mostly normal MRI?
  • Something completely different?

I'd really appreciate hearing from anyone with a similar experience or any ideas about what finally led to a diagnosis.
Please help, I'm very desperate.

Posted Aug 4, 2026, 8:47 AM UTC

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