When the Tests Come Back Normal and You're Still Suffering & What That Actually Means

A negative test result, when you are still experiencing symptoms, is not a neutral event. For many people it is the moment that tips them from uncertain into invisible. Confirmed, it seems, is their own worst fear that nothing is actually wrong, that this is just them, that they are somehow imagining it.

This episode does not rush past that experience. It sits in it and explains, clearly and with compassion, what is actually going on.

The Moment That Confirms the Worst

Keira McGarrity's first investigation came back clear. The scan showed nothing. The clinician moved on. She left the appointment feeling deflated and certain that her suspicion had been right all along.

""It confirmed what I thought. I thought there was nothing wrong anyway, that was just in my head." ~ Keira McGarrity

That moment, the collision between what the test shows and what the person is living, is one of the most important and most mishandled junctures in urogynaecology and continence care. What gets communicated in that moment, and how, shapes what someone does next. Many people don't go back. The system has, inadvertently, discharged them.

Why Bladder Testing Is More Complicated Than It Looks

Angie Rantell brings a perspective here that is genuinely clarifying. Bladder symptoms are variable by nature. They shift with stress, hormones, bowel function, time of day, anxiety levels. A test on a difficult week may show something a test on a calm holiday week would not and vice versa.

"The bladder is an unreliable witness and bladder symptoms vary. A test on one day might have a different result than a test on another day." ~ Angie Rantell

Investigations also work through a process of elimination, moving from least to most invasive, ruling things out before building towards a diagnosis. That process takes time and requires repeat testing. Neither of those things signals failure. Both are just how bladder medicine works.

Understanding this doesn't make a negative result easier to receive. But it does mean that a negative result is not the end of the story and knowing that matters enormously for continence care and quality of life outcomes over time.

The Apology Before the Procedure

Keira eventually went back, supported by a GP who refused to leave things where they were. Her next investigation was a surgical procedure under anaesthetic. Before she went under, she apologised to the surgical team in case they found nothing.

"I said to the doctor, I'm really sorry if you find nothing. I genuinely thought they were going to put me to sleep and spend all this money and just find nothing. So I apologised." ~ Keira McGarrity

But they did find something. The wave of relief she describes (even at receiving news of a genuine problem) speaks to how thoroughly the previous experience had eroded her trust in her own body.

What Good Clinical Communication Looks Like

Angie is honest in this episode about what gets in the way: time pressure, variable training, the difficulty of managing expectations when treatments aren't working. What she also describes is what changes when clinicians shift their opening question from "here is what we can do" to "what would you like from today?"

That question does something important. It acknowledges the person in the room rather than just the presenting condition. It makes space for someone who might want to rule things out rather than get a diagnosis, or who needs to be heard before they can engage with a treatment plan.

Listen to the full conversation with Angie Rantell and Keira McGarrity to hear how this plays out in practice and what it means for how continence care could be delivered differently.

Resources can be found here.