For the past three years I have been in discomfort. I always felt like I had to urinate and that there was a constant pressure on my bladder. I felt some burning, too. I went to a urologist and he dilated and tried different medicines, but that didn't help. My OB-GYN thought that my uterus was possibly pressing on my bladder. Two different doctors recommended I get a hysterectomy, and I had surgery last week. But after a week, I am still having the same feeling of bladder pressure. I am so frustrated. What could this be? Is it possibly something I am just going to have to live with?

-- Kathy

One week after surgery is not enough time to determine if the hysterectomy will help your bladder symptoms. During a hysterectomy a catheter is placed in the bladder to drain the urine; this can cause irritation that may persist for days. The swelling of tissues that accompany any surgical procedure takes a week or more to subside -- and with a hysterectomy there is often substantial manipulation of the bladder, which lies directly on the lower portion of the uterus and cervix.

If your bladder symptoms are still present several weeks after your hysterectomy, then intrinsic bladder conditions such as interstitial cystitis should be ruled out. Interstitial cystitis is a condition of the bladder wall that produces such symptoms as frequent urination, pain or pressure during urination, a sensation of bladder or pelvic pressure, or general achiness. Usually interstitial cystitis is diagnosed by a urologist, most often in the course of examining the bladder via cystoscopy.

I suggest giving it a little more time. If you don't feel better by six weeks after your hysterectomy, when healing is basically complete, then you should be further evaluated. You should not have to "just live with it."