Chronic Bladder DisorderThere are few telltale signs of what Shelly Gregory faces on a daily basis. Looking closer, you may notice the strange way she holds the right side of her abdomen when she walks or the way she tilts her body to the side when she sits in a chair for too long. To the people around her, Gregory, a 35-18-year-old mother of two daughters, might appear healthy. But only those in her inner circle, including her husband and children, truly understand the pain she must endure. we can do to stop it,” Gregory said. “It hurts so much it makes me think my heart is going to explode.” Gregory is one of more than 700,000 people in the United States – 90% of them women – who is battling interstitial cystitis, a chronic disease characterized by inflammation of the bladder that causes urinary frequency, urgency and pelvic pain. Relatively little progress has been made on this condition since the first written reference to interstitial cystitis was made in 1836. More than a century later, there are still few clear answers to what causes this multi-faceted disease or how to treat it effectively. According to epidemiological studies conducted in 1997, the disease typically affects educated white women between the ages of 40 and 45. The spectrum of symptom severity, however, can vary from person to person. Some people experience the need to urinate (up to 70 times a day), while others endure bladder pressure or, in more severe cases, incessant bladder pain. When doctors perform a cystoscopy, a procedure that involves inserting a thin endoscope inside the bladder, some patients with interstitial cystitis may see signs of the disease: mucosal hemorrhage or Hunner's ulcers that bleed when the bladder is filled beyond his ability. People with IC have small-capacity bladders that hold less than 300 ml, or about 1 cup. Gregory said her bladder pain began in 1992 when she developed a blood clot after giving birth to her daughter. Five years later he discovered that interstitial cystitis, not the blood clot, was the culprit. Robert Moldwin, a national expert on interstitial cystitis and director of the Interstitial Cystitis Center at Long Island Jewish Medical Center in Hyde Park, New York, said that despite its prevalence, doctors often misdiagnose interstitial cystitis because patients can feeling pain in one or more areas of the body. pelvis.