MicroGenDX Confirms I Don't Have Interstitial Cystitis: What A DNA Next Generation Urology Test Looks Like

I got my MicroGen DX urology test results back, and I've seen a lot of chronic UTI and interstitial patients in Facebook groups and forums ask about what a test result looks like and how the process works. I detail the whole process in this blog post.

First off, why did I test with MicroGen DX for my mystery cystitis aka chronic bladder inflammation and pelvic pain? It's because I've been reading about how some Interstitial Cystitis (IC) patients and Pelvic Floor Dysfunction (PFD) patients found out that their IC/PFD was really a chronic urinary tract infection (UTI) after testing via MicroGenDX and/or Aperiomics. I think the thread was on the Inspire forum or an IC website forum. The test results those successful patients did through Next Generation Sequencing found hidden bacterias that their GP and urologist's standard urine cultures couldn't find. I wasn't sure if they did a urine test, vaginal swab, urethral swab or all of them. There was just way too much to read. The patients were talking about how they were prescribed usually a minimum of 14 days (or more) of antibiotics paired with a biofilm buster like Interfase Plus or Kirkman. The biofilm buster breaks down the bacteria biofilm pods that are deeply lodged along the bladder walls, and then the antibiotics kill them while they are dislodged and swimming around in the bladder. Or something like that. There are a lot of success stories on the Inspire forum.

If you saw my last post Treating Chronic UTI: DNA Next Generation Sequencing, you'll have read that I sent in my urine to both MicroGen DX and Aperiomics last week. There were a bunch of people in the Facebook groups I'm in, who wanted to know what a MicroGenDX test results looked like and how soon it gets to you. So here it is.

MicroGenDX gets you your PCR testing results within 24 hours of receiving your sample - they call it Level 1. Then a detailed DNA Sequencing Level 2 will come in 3 to 5 business days later.

My MicroGenDX Level 1 results showed that nothing was found. At first, I was feeling disheartened, but I knew a Level 2 would be coming next week.

June 25 update: My MicroGen DX Level 2 DNA Next GenerationSequencing Results just came in today. It shows I have Staphylococcus Epidermidis. The antibiotic recommendations come after it. 

Why this makes sense: I found out my case is interesting, and helps piece the puzzle together to my UTI history. 

Now, if the Stap Epidermidis is truly the pathogen causing the problem, this may be why: Staphylococcus Epidermidis is the harmless bacteria on the outside of our body. It shouldn't be in the bladder. If it is in the bladder, it will bother some patients but may not bother others. For some reason, mine will bother me. It's usually found in patients who use internal medical devices like catheters, or got it from being hospitalized long-term. I do not fit in either category since I have always been a healthy person (swimming, yoga, dancing etc). If this is truly the problem at hand, it makes sense, because whenever I got my UTIs (about once a year on average), doctors could not find anything in the urine culture and always wrote that I "contaminated it with skin flora" or "lots of skin flora found" rendering it useless. What puzzled them was that I would plead them for Ciprofloxacin and it would work and cure me in 5 - 10 days. They couldn't understand why, but it just worked every year. So all this time, maybe I had the Stap Epidermidis and yes, it was found in the urine tests but was always written off by the labs and doctors as "contaminated skin flora". They didn't realize that it was in my bladder and causing me to have UTI symptoms. Anyway, this was just a theory between me and my naturopathic doctor! But it does make a lot of sense because Micro Gen's antibiotics results test shows that this Staph is weak to Ciprofloxacin. So that's why all those mystery "negative for infection" UTIs would just resolve with Ciprofoxacin. When a drop-in doctor would refuse to give me it, I would have to run to another one to please for 7 days of Cipro. Sometimes I even had to go to 3 drop-in doctors in a day just to get someone to prescribe me it. 

However, if Staph Epidermidis is NOT the true pathogen, it has been said that when Staph Epidermidis is showing, it could either be truly a contamination (though I doubt it in my case), or a biofilm.

The last page is the antibiotic recommendations for the bacteria.
How to understand this page:
1) Topical means to put into your bladder (I had no idea that this technology existed!)
2) PO means oral, as in the antibiotic pills that you swallow
3) IV is Intravenous therapy that delivers liquid substances directly into your vein.
4) Checkmarks mean that the antibiotic will work if taken in whatever category. No checkmark means it won't work in that method.

How did I order a MicroGenDX urine kit? I ordered it through their website and spoke to customer reps Hailey and Beth. Since I was an international patient, I had to pre-pay $200 USD upfront by credit card over the phone. I got my kit in a few days. The kit came with vaginal swab tubes and urine cups (I forgot to take photos). You do a first morning pee, and a night pee. You have to make sure you don't drink 2 hours or more before your pee, so it doesn't dilute your urine. This was hard for me, my night urine was so diluted because I drink a huge amount of water to keep my urine from stinging. So I'm hoping my night urine didn't affect the test results. There are instructions on how to move your urine from their sample cups into vaccuum sealed vials (all provided to you in the kit). Then you put your vacuum-sealed vials into the kit and ship it out via FedEx. The kit is prepaid shipping if you are within the States, but I had to pay FedEx about $87.00 to ship it from Vancouver BC to the lab on overnight (fastest shipping). You don't need to refrigerate the urine since they are in vacuum sealed vials, and there is no absolute hurry to send it out. But don't leave your kit sitting forever in your home because I think after a certain number of days, the urine will get bad (or something like that). What I did was: I did a night urine the night before, and a morning urine the next day, and immediately had it shipped out a few hours after my morning urine was done.

July 2018 update:
I did another test with MicroGen DX in July 2018 which found Quinolone antibiotic-resistant e-coli on this post. So now I'm wondering why ecoli showed up this time? Did a biofilm burst and then ecoli came out? It would make sense, because I had severe bladder pain come out of nowhere in June. That could have been those ecoli….  The Quinolone resistance makes sense too, because I took so many round of short-term Ciprofloxacin antibiotics (a Quinolone antibiotic) that my e-coli learned to become Quinolone resistant.

October 2018 update:
In October, I did another Microgen DX test would showed the e-coli has dwindled down to 72,000, but picked up even more resistance when I did another round of antibiotics back in August. Again, the test results made sense with what I was doing. I also started feeling a lot better in September too, so it made sense that the ecoli count would be down in the October testing.