Pregnancy-Related Painful Urination: Causes & Relief

Question
Hello Doctor,

I am 6.5 wks pregnant (haven't seen heartbeat yet but BetaHCG is doubling well) and am getting lots of pain and burning while passing urine. It burns me a lot in urethral and vaginal region and wakes me up at night. No other discharges.

I took macrobid for 3 days but still not getting relief. My urine culture result showed No bacterial growth.

1. Doctor, What could be the reason for so much burning?

2. Is there any soothing cream that I can apply? (for eg. clotrimazole crem or monistat?) that are safe during pregnancy?

Is this a common complain during early pregnancy?

Please help.  

Answer
If the urine culture did not show greater than 100,000 colonies of any bacteria, you do not have a urinary tract infection. YOu may have a yeast infection and, of course, Monistat should help. (It can, indeed, be used during pregnancy).You may have some inflammation in the area of your urethra and that should be investigated by your obstetrician. This a a common complaint during pregnancy, but it should not be ignored. Follow it up with your doctor.