Chronic Cystitis and What to do about it?

I have suffered with cystitis on and off since I was a young child. The doctors have never got to the bottom of it. I send tests off but invariably they come back clear and the doctors say it doesn’t mean there isn’t an infection there… sometimes they just can’t “grow” them! So he give me anti-biotics and after antibiotics…which don’t really seem to cure me.

I’m currently going through a really bad patch of it and am going back to the doctor tomorrow after being on anti-biotics for a week and they haven’t sorted it

The doctor has said previously that i might have to be on long term anti-biotics…which i really don’t want to do…I don’t like them anyway – they are so bad for you in the long term… Is this really a solution?

So I wondered if anyone else has had similar problems and if there is another way out of this horrible painful, debilitating discomfort and evident problem..