Diagnosed with Ureaplasma, immunosuppressed (MS), but girlfriend’s gynecologist refuses to test/treat her — thoughts?
After a string of tests, my primary care doctor/urologist finally traced my UTI symptoms to Ureaplasma. I’m currently on antibiotics to resolve it. Since I’m immunosuppressed (I’m on treatment for MS), this isn’t something I want to deal with on repeat, obviously.
My urologist recommended my girlfriend also get tested and treated, even though she isn’t showing any symptoms herself. His reasoning was that Ureaplasma can “ping pong” between partners, so treating just one of us without addressing potential reinfection risk doesn’t really solve the problem long-term.
She went to her gynecologist to get tested and start treatment, and they flat out refused. Their stance was that Ureaplasma is considered part of the normal vaginal microbiome, and that testing/treating someone without symptoms isn’t standard practice. She pushed back and explained the context (my diagnosis, immunosuppression, ping-pong risk) and they still declined.
From what I’ve read, this seems to be a genuinely contested area in the literature. Some sources do treat Ureaplasma as commensal/normal flora in asymptomatic people, especially certain species/subtypes, while others support partner treatment in cases like ours specifically because of reinfection risk. So I get that her gynecologist isn’t pulling this out of nowhere, but it feels like a disconnect between what my urologist is telling me and what her provider is telling her, and I’m the one who has to actually deal with the consequences if this comes back.
Has anyone dealt with something similar, either as the immunosuppressed partner or as someone whose doctor gave them the “it’s normal, we don’t treat it” answer? Curious whether her gynecologist’s position is common practice or if we should be pushing for a second opinion.