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Bladder HealthInterstitial Cystitis (IC) and it's causesInterstitial cystitis (IC), known as “painful bladder syndrome” or “frequency-urgency-dysuria syndrome,” is a complex, chronic disorder. People with interstitial cystitis have an inflamed or irritated bladder wall. This inflammation can lead to scarring and stiffening of the bladder, decreased bladder capacity, glomerulations (pinpoint bleeding) and, in rare cases, ulcers in the bladder lining.About 90% of IC patients are women. While people of any age can be affected, about two-thirds of patients are in their twenties, thirties, or forties. IC is rare in children. In a few cases, IC has afflicted both mother and daughter, but there is no evidence that the disorder is hereditary, or genetically passed from parent to child. No one knows what causes interstitial cystitis, but doctors studying the disorder believe it is a real, physical problem - not a result, symptom, or sign of an emotional problem. Some people are diagnosed with IC after a presumed urinary tract infection and a course of antibiotics. It is possible that the urinary tract infection triggered an autoimmune response against the bladder; or that the patient's original symptoms were from IC all along and it could be that the infecting organism was in the bladder cells, but was not detectable through routine tests done for UTIs. It has been suggested that antibiotics may damage the bladder wall and make it "leaky." This idea has been studied carefully, but antibiotics have never been found to harm the bladder wall. Thus, other ideas are more likely to explain why some IC patients are diagnosed after a urinary tract infection.
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