Interstitial Cystitis/Bladder Pain Syndrome

The primary focus of this chapter will be a specific pelvic pain disorder, interstitial cystitis/bladder pain syndrome (IC/BPS), a chronic, debilitating visceral pain syndrome that is characterized by lower abdominal, pelvic and/or vulvar pain, urinary urgency and frequency, and nocturia. The lack of a validated IC/BPS-specific marker and questions regarding etiology and pathophysiology have not only made the diagnosis and optimal management of IC/BPS particularly challenging but also made its prevalence difficult to determine. Some have put forward the concept of excluding “confusable diagnoses” as a necessary step to the assignment of the diagnosis of IC/BPS, but others have accepted that what is called IC/BPS is a symptomatic descriptive diagnosis that may have multiple etiologies.