interstitial cystitis and pregnancy

[Anonymous]

Does anyone have IC, and if so, do you have any coping advice for how to manage while pregnant? This has been harder than I thought it would be.

[Anonymous]

Yes! Or, at least, I'm pretty sure IC is my problem. Have had tiny bouts of similar bladder pain in past years, but never more than several days at a time. Since the pregnancy, it has been major pain every night [now 20 weeks]. I've managed with 1/2 a pill of Tylenol 3 every 4 hours, which at least keeps the pain to a bearable level. I already had it on hand for migraines and my OBs are fine with it in low doses. But there's still a lot of discomfort and a LOT of lost sleep!

Wish I had better advice. I've talked to the OB about seeing a urologist, but it sounds like there aren't a lot of options while you're pregnant. (Even for checking things out -- the OB thought sedation would be fine if the urologist wanted to feed a catheter camera, but wasn't sure they could feed the tube with baby in the way.) So frustrating!

[Anonymous]

Thanks. It helps to hear I'm not alone. I have the same understanding from my urologist; there's not a lot that can be done during pregnancy to make life more bearable. It sounds like your symptoms have been much worse during pregnancy, so maybe they will get better again afterwards. Hang in there!