The Diagnosis and Treatment of Interstitial Cystitis

The diagnosis and treatment of interstitial cystitis (IC) has frustrated both clinicians and patients alike. Interstitial cystitis is a bladder disease characterized by urinary frequency, urgency, and pelvic pain, first described more than 80 years ago. Until recently, it has been an ignored disease; patients with IC have been told that their symptoms are imaginary and that there is nothing wrong with them. IC patients have been counseled to seek psychiatric help for their disease, and many patients suffer unduly until a diagnosis is made. Although IC has been considered to be a disease that predominantly affects women, more men are now being diagnosed with this disease. There is evidence that men treated for “chronic abacterial prostatatis”—which is characterized by urinary frequency, urgency, and pelvic/perineal pain—will often have cystoscopic findings suggestive of interstitial cystitis and will respond to standard treatments for IC. The problem with IC is that it is a diagnosis of exclusion, and there are no specific objective tests to definitively diagnosis IC or to monitor disease progression. These keywords were added by machine and not by the authors. This process is experimental and the keywords may be updated as the learning algorithm improves.