Chronic Urinary Tract Infection or Interstitial Cystitis?

"Diagnosing interstitial cystitis (IC) can be challenging. The IC diagnosis process requires healthcare providers to rule out other conditions prior to making the clinical judgment that you have IC. Common conditions that must be first ruled out include urinary tract infections and chronic prostatitis. In addition, the lack of a diagnostic test for IC may lead to a misdiagnosis"

"IC is often mistaken for a urinary tract infection (UTI) or bladder infection, which it is not. Some IC patients do have low levels of bacteria in their urine that don’t normally qualify as a urinary tract infection and others may have atypical bacteria, such as ureaplasm. Also, IC patients do get full-blown UTIs—and antibiotics are usually prescribed to treat these urinary infections."

"Individuals with allergies, migraine headaches, endometriosis, irritable bowel syndrome, asthma, or sensitive skin may have a greater chance of developing IC. And, some studies have reported that IC patients are as much as 100 times more likely than the general population to have irritable bowel syndrome."

"Individuals already suffering from IC may also have a greater chance of developing fibromyalgia or chronic fatigue syndrome."


https://www.ichelp.org/about-ic/associated-conditions/chronic-fatigue-syndrome/

 

The description of cfs is short but very on point. Good to see they understand.

 

When I was diagnosed with IC, it was after being put under in the OR and have a biopsy done of the inflammation to rule out bladder cancer. Only then was I given the diagnosis of IC. My urologist said that having ME put people at a higher risk of developing IC.

 

Urology Awareness Month – Interstitial cystitis free information factsheet

"In this blog, we discuss the poorly understood urological condition Interstitial Cystitis (IC) also often referred to as painful bladder syndrome, and how some people with ME/CFS may have this diagnosis.

Dr Shepherd says: “Bladder symptoms are quite common in ME/CFS, however, the number of people who would meet diagnostic criteria for IC is really quite small. Currently, I am not aware of any decent epidemiological studies that have provided information on the actual prevalence of IC in ME/CFS. In medical terms, IC is regarded by some (but not all doctors) as a co-morbidity in ME/CFS.”

The main symptoms of IC include:

• intense pelvic pain under bellybutton
• sudden strong urges to pass urine
• needing to urinate more often than normal
• waking up during the night to go to the toilet "

https://meassociation.org.uk/2021/0...rstitial-cystitis-free-information-factsheet/

 

There is also a poll on urinary infections here, Urinary Tract Infections