Sometimes you just can't leave the bathroom because by the time you stand up and have your clothes back on, you have to sit down again. IC may affect hundreds of thousands of women in the United States and is a chronic inflammation of the bladder, which scientists and doctors are only now beginning to recognize and understand. Sufferers like Carrigan may experience severe pain in the bladder region and the uncontrollable urge to urinate sometimes as frequently as 60 times a day. For many IC sufferers, the illness may start out like a bladder infection. In most cases, antibiotics fail to solve the problem.
Many women report seeing several doctors before being correctly diagnosed.
Recent epidemiological research indicates that the numbers may be higher. Once considered a rare disease that afflicted primarily elderly women, IC is now being identified more frequently among women in their 20s and 30s. Most sufferers report feeling as though they have symptoms of a bacterial bladder infection. The condition may evolve into constant pain in the pelvic and bladder areas. The pain increases as the bladder fills, causing the constant need to urinate.