Schistosomiasis (Bilharzia)

35F Non-smoker, don’t drink.

I have recently been extremely ill following a period of being mildly ill with no diagnosis because everything looked ‘fine’ on paper. As usual, it had been written off to ‘stress’ with no further help. I have an autoimmune disease which also means anything that is wrong gets blamed on that.

When my stomach issues got bad enough, a doctor started looking for parasites and found two. One was Blastocystis hominis which I’ve been treated for.

My Bilharzia IgG was positive (1.32), and my IgM was negative (0.77). The doctor explained that I had had an infection in the past and my body dealt with it. Is this really possible and is there anything I can do to ensure it’s really gone?

So many of the symptoms, especially bladder related ones have been plaguing me for ages and I’m nervous knowing I’ve been exposed to something serious without treatment. From my understanding bilharzia can do very serious damage.

Could someone please explain bilharzia to me in a bit more detail if possible? Is there anything I should be doing to ensure the bilharzia is really gone and didn’t do damage.

Thank you so much!