IC Disease

Wow - this has been a very busy month for Jeanne over at Endo Blog and for all of the wonderful bloggers who are doing their part to raise awareness for Endometriosis Awareness Month.  I admire Jeanne for all of the time and effort that she puts into her website and what she is doing for Endometriosis sufferers.  Her spirit and enthusiasm is catching on and she is reporting on her blog all of the people who are getting involved.

For more information on Endometriosis, please follow links to these sites and articles below:

• Jeanne’s Endo Blog
• Endometriosis.org
• March Is National Endometriosis Month
• Endometriosis Association
• Endometriosis Institute
• Endometriosis Research Center

Please do your part and post about Endo. Awareness Month on your blog or website and make sure you sign the petition also! 

March is National Endometriosis Awareness Month and in honor of this, I wanted to post a link to an Endometriosis petition that you can sign (thanks to Jeanne at Jeanne’s Endo Blog).  Approximately 89 million women worldwide suffer from Endometriosis and even with this large number, the illness is still under funded, neglected and under researched.  Most people do not understand or fully fathom just how debilitating Endometriosis can be for its sufferers. 

If you have a blog or a website, Jeanne is asking us all to post THIS LINK for information on the petition and to sign the petition.  It’s important that we help all of those with chronic illness no matter what it is.  Even if we don’t have the same illness as someone else, we all have something in common - we suffer together.

I signed the petition and I hope you will also.  Thanks!

Approximately one out of seven women are affected by chronic pelvic pain which is difficult to treat.  Not only is chronic pelvic pain painful, it can also take a huge emotional toll on the sufferer because even after countless trips to a doctor and therapist, they still often don’t have a solution to the cause or for their pain.

C. Paul Perry, MD, chairman of the International Pelvic Pain Society and an assistant clinical professor of obstetrics and gynecology at the University of Alabama at Birmingham says times are changing:

“Women no longer have to settle for being debilitated. We’ve made a lot of progress in the past decade in educating physicians about chronic pain.”

But what most doctors have learned by now about chronic pelvic pain is that there is typically more than one cause. Most women have at least three conditions that causes their pain. All the causes have to be treated in order for the patient to get better - not just one cause.

An article I recently read from Prevention recommends that women with chronic pelvic pain see a pelvic pain specialist.  Only a pelvic pain specialist possesses the broad knowledge and experience required to provide you with an accurate diagnosis and appropriate treatment for the five most common causes of pelvic pain:

• Endometriosis
• Interstitial Cystitis
• Pelvic Floor Tension Myalgia
• Pelvic Congestion Syndrome
• Vulvodynia

Source

If you talk to someone with Interstitial Cystitis, you will probably find that the patient has more than one chronic condition going on.  They don’t have just IC Disease.  I was diagnosed first with ME/CFS (Chronic Fatigue Syndrome - ME/CFS is the new name) 18 years ago; later it was an IBS (Irritable Bowel Syndrome) diagnosis; about 14 years later I was diagnosed with both Fibromyalgia and the next month with Interstitial Cystitis.  My urologist told me that approximately 25% of his IC patients also have Fibromyalgia.

There are five illnesses that are related to Interstitial Cystitis and are commonly found in IC patients.  How many illnesses/conditions the IC patient has is an individual thing.  No two people are alike with IC Disease.  The five common illnesses/conditions related to IC include:

• ME/CFS (Chronic Fatigue Syndrome)
• Fibromyalgia (FM)
• Irritable Bowel Syndrome (IBS)
• Endometriosis
• Lupus

Again, I am going to do another series and I will break down the related illnesses one by one starting tomorrow. 

Endometriosis is a condition where tissue similar to the lining of the uterus (the endometrial stroma and glands), which should only be located inside the uterus, is found elsewhere in the body. Endometriosis can be found anywhere in the pelvic region or cavity: the ovaries, the fallopian tubes, the pelvic sidewall, cesarean-section scars, laparoscopy scars, and on the bladder, bowel, intestines, colon, appendix, and rectum. There have been rare cases of endometriosis being found inside the vagina, inside the bladder, on the skin and in the lungs, spine and brain.

The most common symptom associated with endometriosis is pain in the pelvic region. The pain often coincides with the woman’s menstrual cycle but she can experience pain at other times of the month as well. The pain can be so severe for some women that they are debilitated and are unable to function at a normal level.

Approximately 30% - 40% of women with endometriosis are unable to get pregnant. Besides pelvic pain, other symptoms of endometriosis include:

• diarrhea or constipation
• abdominal bloating
• fatigue
• heavy or irregular bleeding

Pain:

• before/during/after menstruation

• during ovulation

• in the bowel during menstruation

• when passing urine

• during or after sexual intercourse

• in the lower back region

The cause of endometriosis is unknown. Many of the symptoms fit that of IC Disease.

Thank God times are changing for IC patients and the illness is starting to be more understood.  But even though advances have been made, there are still a lot of women being misdiagnosed by physicians due to their lack of knowledge on IC Disease.  Lack of knowledge isn’t the only reason that IC Disease may be misdiagnosed.   It can be difficult at times to correctly diagnose because IC resembles some other conditions that have similar symptoms. 

This week I will be breaking down each of the illnesses in detail I have listed below that resemble symptoms of IC Disease.

• Vulvodynia
• Endometriosis
• Urinary Tract Infection (UTI)
• Overactive Bladder
• Cervicitis