He painful bladder syndrome It is a chronic ailment that mainly affects women and causes great discomfort and discomfort. In the most severe cases, it can prevent people from leaving home or carrying out their daily activities, because pain that occurs in the pelvic area (below the navel) it is very strong.
How often does it appear? The actual figures for the incidence of painful bladder syndrome in Spain are not exactly known. The reason is that this clinical situation is diagnosed much less than the incidence of the disease. Diagnosis in the initial or intermediate phases is non-existent because only severe cases are known, since it is in these phases when pain appears and, consequently, the doctor is seen. It is estimated that the diagnosis is made about 4 years after the onset of the disease, although there are people who take up to 8 years to see a doctor.
Who is affected? As we have already pointed out, painful bladder syndrome mainly affects women located in a very broad age spectrum that goes from 20 years to 70. In most cases it is diagnosed in the post-menopause although there are many young women who, after a repeat cystitis clinic, discover that they suffer from this problem.
Causes. The most common cause of bladder pain is inflammation of bacterial origin. We would be talking about classic cystitis, although patients with painful bladder syndrome have, in addition to
infection, an inflammatory cause. In fact, in many cases, urine cultures are not positive despite the person’s pain and having the symptoms of a urinary infection. Don’t confuse infection with inflammation.
Symptoms. The basic symptom presented by patients with a painful bladder is pain and micturition frequency. The number of times they go to the bathroom is very high and this modifies their behaviour, social and travel habits. In addition, at night this problem is more pronounced and the person can get up up to 12 times to urinate. Obviously, that person cannot fall asleep and the loss of quality of life is very important.
Treatment. At the moment there is no cure or definitive treatment that makes bladder syndrome disappear. The most current trend of opinion is that which believes that it is a global or systemic disease of the patient, whose organ of shock is the bladder. This affectation affects the rest of the body. However, there are many treatment possibilities, palliative, which improve discomfort, micturition frequency, urgency and ultimately greatly improve the quality of life of patients.
Why should we go to the urologist? If the inflammation-infection continues, a vicious circle is established that produces a permanent contraction of the bladder muscle, decreasing the capacity of the urinary bladder and worsening the symptoms.
Bartolomé Lloret is director of the Men’s Health Center. Medimar International Hospital