[Interstitial cystitis in 2008]

Interstitial cystitis (IC) is a chronic, debilitating condition that is often associated with late diagnosis and a delay in initiation of appropriate IC-specific therapy. The typical patient with interstitial cystitis (IC) is symptomatic for many years and consults multiple physicians before IC is diagnosed. These observations suggest that the clinical presentation of IC is not widely recognized. The resultant underdiagnosis may be explained in part by the nonspecific nature of IC symptoms, such as urinary urgency, frequency, nocturia and pain, as well as by the lack of an objective diagnostic test. Pelvic pain of bladder origin may refer to pain in any location in the pelvis, is affected by the menstrual cycle and flares with sexual intercourse. As a result of variations in disease definition and diagnostic criteria for interstitial cystitis (IC), the performance of epidemiologic studies has been challenging. The true prevalence of IC is much greater than the early studies suggested. Over the last decade, the recognized prevalence of IC has increased and it is consistently greater among women as compared to men.