Flomax For Women?

nrsang97, BSN, RN · Mar 19, 2008

I have only seen it once or twice. I wasn't sure of the reason except that I thought that the woman had some obstruction or orther. I haven't seen it in a long time.

Dolce, RN · Mar 19, 2008

I've never seen it given to women before.

fsaav · Mar 19, 2008

I do medical transcription for a urology practice and they occasionally prescribe Flomax to women to help with renal calculi passage.

AggieQT · Mar 20, 2008

I am a female and every time I pass a kidney stone I get a months supply of it... maybe it is just my urologist, but when I questioned him about it the first time, he said it is his standard practice.

StacieRN, RN · Mar 20, 2008

Female here. I had some adhesions due to radiation and was given Flomax to try to increase output - I was down to a dribble.

Didn't work for me though. I had to be cathed and keep a cath while the adhesion area healed.

bollweevil · Mar 20, 2008

Thanks for the info. Interesting and informative. Multiple stones, YOUCH! Did the Flomax help ease them out?

rph3664 · Mar 20, 2008

We have a urologist who has prescribed it for women a number of times.

It's an alpha agonist and relaxes the detrusor muscle, enabling them to urinate more easily.

EvelynRN-BSN · Sep 28, 2009

I heard a urologist saying he uses this to increase urine output in women. Is this something you have seen?
He described a couple of patients who had swollen legs and abdomen, nausea, very little urine output, non-specific, odd-sounding abdominal pains intermittently. He also puts these folks on macrodantin low dose nightly for a couple of weeks, keeps up with their BUN and creatinine, and checks them for various causes of obstruction of urine outflow. Hard to tell whether they have obstructive uropathy or renal failure.
Interesting to hear him discuss it. Anyone familiar with this?
I guess this is an off label use for Flomax?

As I am sure you are well aware of Flomax is a medication that works on the Alpha 1 receptors in men with prostate/BPH and helps relax the bladder neck muscles so urine flow is better among these male clients. Flomax has only been FDA approved for male patients and has no information with the use in women because no studies have been done. But, as we are all aware of there are alpha 1 receptors in male and female bladder necks of the urethra, which can help relax the muscles for urine to flow better without or with reduced spasms and hesitation.

I am a 31 year old female that has had several urethral and bladder dilations/dilatations. My bladder can only hold around 200 cc at almost maximum with me running for the bathroom door in agonizing pain feeling like my bladder is going to rupture. I have been going through this my entire life. I have a solitary left kidney (congenital) and is enlarged with many internal abnormalities, but I will only discuss the GU here for this medication. I have been dilated surgically twice under anesthesia for urethra and bladder, but my bladder is for the main reason of the dilatation because of it being so small. I am 5"2" and 117 lbs. I go to the BR anywhere from 40 to 50 times a day without exaggeration (10 times during the night on a regular). The dilations only worked for about a couple weeks with me going to around 20 times, still way more than the average person. I call it pearrhea, got to make fun of it, even though it is really affecting my sleep. I get up anywhere from every 15 minutes, to 30 minutes, to an hour at night and never get a full nights sleep. It is terrible. I see a Urologist, amongst many other specialists I have to see. I finally had a sleep study done awhile back (I will be getting to the FLOMAX Soon) and come to find out I have sleep problems: Dx: Chronically Sleep Deprivation with spontaneous awakening at night/Night time insomnia, Severe Daytime Hypersomnolence and still cannot rule out Narcolepsy. It's terrible. Which led to me be prescribed Elavil 10 mg PO HS. Hypersomnolence and Narcolepsy is treated almost the same and they are trying to treat my sleep issues at night first to see if it will help with my hypersomnolence during the day. So far the Elavil 10mg (also an anti-depressant, but in order to treat depression it is at a higher dose, which I do not have, this is only for sleep). It has knocked me out at night. They don't prescribe Ambien or Lunesta (sleep meds) because I was told that it would only mask the problems and not fix my sleep problems. Well I can now sleep without tossing and turning all night for most nights (not all) and it also has helped with my Nocturia (I have gone from going 10 times a night to 4 to 6 times a night on most nights). Which leads to FLOMAX: I followed up with my urologist on a regular because he recently did a dilation and CMG and Cysto so it was time for my follow up. He tried me on vesicare about a month ago even though my problem is not being able to empty my bladder all the way: urinary retention along with a tiny bladder, terrible combo! Then I was started on Elavil three weeks before my visit with him and had to stop the vesicare because for one it was not working and secondly, bad horrible side effects (Sore throat, raspy voice, dry mouth, headache, constipation), so I stopped it after talking with the office and good thing because you cannot take those two meds together. I told my urologist that I was put on Elavil 10 mg and it has helped with the nocturia and how it has decreased. Well, he then said he usually prescribes that for patients at 25 mg for that problem and I should check with my neurologist to see if they want to increase it to help that as well because he did not want to step on their toes since they are using it for sleep. So I have to put in a call to my neuro: but why did he not do this for me before. It has done some great help already at night: s/e of elavil (one of many) is urine retention, which the first night taking it I woke up after sleeping three hours straight (extremely rare for me) with a strong urge to urinate, my bladder was full. Hey, but I got three straight hours in between without feeling the need to go every five to fifteen minutes. It was great. During the day it does not help as much. So my urologist wants to see if they will increase the Elavil to 20 mg or 25 mg HS and start taking FLOMAX 0.4 MG in AM. I started it two days ago. He believes that I may be having bladder neck spasms and this medication can help relax the bladder neck in order to increase my flow of urine. He gave me a months worth of samples. I have a weak urine flow and hesitates to start the flow and then the flow is weak streamed and it starts, stops, dribbles...I am sure you get the picture...it's terrible. I have noticed that my flow is starting to get better. But only time will tell. Other OFF LABEL uses is for patients with Kidney Stones, it will help relax the muscles to help open up the bladder neck and urethra to help allow stones to pass on some occasions. This is used sometimes before resorting to surgery. It has shown to work. But again they use this in male patients, but doctors have found that it has helped many women and some health insurances will not cover the medication because it is considered experimental.

Flomax is not given to cause patients to urinate more, it is actually given to patients in order to increase urine flow to better empty your bladder or shall I say a more successful and fulfilling pee. Ha! Ha! It actually is used in women "experimental" to help those that urinate a lot to urinate a lot less by helping them empty their bladder.

I hope this helps and educational. It gives a full clinical picture of how drugs can be used for off labels or s/e purposes. :yeah:

PAERRN20 · Sep 29, 2009

I have seen it prescribed for a woman once. I don't remember why but I did question the doctor!

dishes, BSN, RN · Sep 29, 2009

Wow Evelyn, urinary frequency and working as a nurse seem incompatible, any tips you could share? Patients have asked me what they can do about their frequency, so I am wondering what you recommend.

Thanks for giving a full description of how flomax works on the bladder neck, I was aware that this is the reason for giving it to both men and women and I have seen it work successfully on a couple of women.

regards

dishes

Not_A_Hat_Person, RN · Sep 29, 2009

I had a female patient who was on Flomax for a kidney problem.