Q: How many people have IC? A: Although the exact number of people with IC is unknown. Millions of men and women in the United States suffer from chronic pelvic pain that may be caused by IC.
Faces of IC
The Healthy Body, Healthy Mind
Download an Informational Brochure
 
1. Understand your symptoms
2. Take and print the IC self-test
3. Schedule a specific doctor visit
4. Prepare for your visit
5. Track your symptoms
   

Pelvic or abdominal pain

Pain during or after sexual intercourse

Need to urinate frequently during the day, perhaps every hour

Urge to urinate, even though you have emptied your bladder

Waking during sleep to urinate

Pain 1 week before menstruation

Other

 
Tell A Friend
 
Print this Page
 
 

What Is IC?

Understand Your Symptoms - interstitial cystitis (IC) is a long-term, yet treatable inflammatory condition of the bladder wall. Inside the bladder there is a mucous layer that lines and protects the bladder wall. When someone has IC, it is believed that the mucous layer is damaged. This allows irritating substances in the urine to aggravate and inflame the bladder wall.

Understanding Your Symptoms
The symptoms of IC are not the same for every person who has this disorder. Not only can symptoms of IC vary from person to person, but the same individual may experience different symptoms, over time. Some of the more common symptoms a person with IC may experience are listed here. Whether you notice one, two or all of these symptoms, you should ask a healthcare professional to evaluate you for possible IC.

WOMEN

  • You feel unexplained pain or pressure in the pelvic area
  • You feel pain during or after sexual intercourse
  • You have frequent, sometimes painful urination (Normally, people urinate an average of 6 to 7 times per day. Patients with IC urinate an average of 16 times per day, and some urinate as often as 60 times per day.)
  • You wake at night to urinate
  • You may feel the urge to urinate, sometimes even after you've emptied your bladder
  • You have symptoms like a urinary tract infection (UTI) or are diagnosed with more than two UTIs per year
  • Your symptoms come and go—flare-ups may be associated with menstruation, certain foods, allergies, and stress
  

MEN

  • You feel unexplained pain or pressure in your penis, testes, and/or scrotum, the area above the pubic bone, the lower abdomen, the lower back, or the groin area including testicular pain, in any combination
  • You have pain when you ejaculate or a day after ejaculation
  • You have frequent, sometimes painful urination (Normally, people urinate an average of 6 to 7 times per day. Patients with IC urinate an average of 16 times per day, and some urinate as often as 60 times per day.)
  • You wake more at night to urinate
  • You may feel the urge to urinate, sometimes even after you've emptied your bladder
  • Your symptoms come and go—flare-ups may be associated with certain foods, allergies, and stress
Take the Self Test For Women
  
Take the Self Test For Men