Help for Interstitial Cystitis

Interstitial Cystitis can be truly devasting for those who have been diagnosed with it and their loved ones. It affects all aspects of life for the patient and their families. There are many different ways to manage the pain caused by IC including:

Mediational Therapy

Support Groups

Physical Therapy

Herbal Supplements

Informational Websites

Yoga/Meditation

There are many other conditions that can be diagnosed or misdiagnosed that are similar to IC . It is also common for an IC patient to be properly diagnosed with other conditions that contribute to chronic pelvic and sexual pain

Chronic pelvic pain encompasses not only syndromes and conditions from the waist to mid-thigh, but new pain research has found linkage between auto-immune disorders, such as fibromyalgia, with pelvic pain conditions. Many experts now send their chronic sexual or pelvic pain patients to pelvic floor physical therapists to work on the fascia, or connective tissues.

Some conditions, such as adhesions and endometriosis, may not even truly be the cause of the discomfort, to which many women who have been treated and still suffer excruciating pelvic pain will attest. Just a few symptoms and disorders associated with chronic pelvic and sexual pain are dyspareunia, painful intercourse, interstitial cystitis, irritable bowel, lichen sclerosis, myofascial pain, ovarian cyst, painful bladder syndrome, pelvic floor dysfunction, pelvic floor physical therapy, psoas muscle spasm, pudendal nerve neuralgia, vaginismus, vestibulitis, vulvar vestibulitis, vulvodynia.

But pain research is beginning to show us that this is just the tip of the iceberg regarding pelvic and sexual pain. We are beginning to learn how nerve memory from trauma (accidents, sports, abuse, etc.) can lay in wait for years and suddenly trigger misfiring in the pelvic area.