What is Interstitial Cystitis?
Interstitial cystitis (IC) is also known as Painful Bladder Syndrome (PBS), Irritable Bladder Syndrome or Bladder Pain Syndrome (BPS).
Interstitial cystitis is a conditions affecting the space between the bladder lining and the bladder muscle (interstitial meaning ‘between the layers’ and cystitis, in this sense, meaning ‘of the bladder’).
In general terms, it is a chronic inflammation of the bladder wall. It can resemble a bacterial bladder infection (cystitis) but typically symptoms are always present and don’t respond to antibiotics.
There is an estimated 400.000 people living with this condition in the UK alone, of which 90% are females and 10% are males [1, 2, 3].