What Is Painful Bladder Syndrome?

By amara

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Have you been struck for the fifth time this hour with the sudden need to urinate? You may start to feel that urge and wonder if you’re getting another UTI. Then you realize — you’ve had a lot of UTIs lately. Could your symptoms of frequent urination, urgency, and pain in your bladder point to a more serious condition?

Painful bladder syndrome, while not a well-known disease, affects more people than you may realize. Read further to discover the symptoms, treatment, and lifestyle changes that can take your life with PBS from awful to completely manageable.

1. What Causes Painful Bladder Syndrome?

Unfortunately, researchers have not yet been able to determine what causes PBS. Ideas range from previous bladder infections damaging the lining of a patient’s bladder to genetic susceptibility to bladder conditions and whether a patient has co-existing conditions. Women who have IBS, fibromyalgia, endometriosis, or allergies are particularly affected by this confusing condition.

Some researchers and doctors suspect that PBS may be an autoimmune condition in which the body’s own immune system attacks the bladder as if it were a virus or bacteria. This theory has also not been proven.