INTERSTITIAL CYSTITIS or PAINFUL BLADDER SYNDROME (IC/PBS) is a chronic bladder condition. IC/PBS refers to pain, pressure, discomfort within the urinary bladder, with symptoms lasting more than six weeks, of infection or other identifiable causes.
Symptoms often include an urgent need to urinate, pain if delay urination, and frequent need to urinate or a combination of symptoms. Pain can also occur during menstruation or vaginal intercourse. Symptoms can range from mild to severe, intermittent to constant. Symptoms may disappear with treatment or without explanation, but sometimes can return days, weeks, months or years later.
IC/PBS can be associated with irritable bowel syndrome, fibromyalgia, chronic fatigue syndrome and other pain syndromes. It is felt to fall under the larger entity – Chronic pelvic pain syndrome.
There are a multitude of treatment options that have been used to treat IC/PBS.There is no one magic treatment because the cause may be very different from person to person. Treatments that have been used include diet modification, bladder training, specialized pelvic floor physical therapy, medications, bladder instillation with medication, bladder distension, electrical nerve stimulation,