Blog

It’s time to be honest. Working in pelvic health can sometimes be lonely, in the UK we’re often in tiny clinics away from our teams. I’m certainly someone who thrives on discussing, debating and being challenged. So here are some of the things I’ve been doing with Graded Motor Imagery, how I’m approaching it at the moment and the realities of how it’s going – it takes time!

If you’ve got any comments, are using GMI or are passionate about treating or researching BPS I’d love to hear from you! Only from sharing our knowledge do we all improve. At the end of the day, that’s my mission – getting better at getting people better. Enjoy!

What is Bladder Pain Syndrome?

The first thing to say about Bladder Pain Syndrome is what it’s Not….

Initially people went to their doctors with the symptoms of a chronic infection – a urinary tract infection or cystitis. They had an urgent need to pass urine, felt like they needed to go often and it would be accompanied by pain in the bladder region, perineum (between the legs) or in the urethra (tube from the bladder). However this went on much longer than an infection should, and often after taking antibiotics. The lining of the bladder is called the interstitium and so it was thought that when people presented with this group of symptoms they had a chronic infection of the bladder lining. This is how the name Interstitial Cystitis came around.

It’s now understood that Interstitial Cystitis/Bladder Pain Syndrome is much more complex, and many people do not have a chronic infection of the bladder or urethral lining. Even If they do have a chronic...

Watch the vlog here.

A few weeks ago I was given this paper by Gill Brook (thanks Gill!), and I think it’s another important step forwards in our knowledge about the aeteology of Bladder Pain Syndrome.

The full title of the paper is:
Will cesarean section increase the risk of interstitial cystitis/painful bladder syndrome?
Kun-Min Chang, Ming-Huei Lee, Hsuan-Hung Lin, Shang-Liang Wu, Huei-Ching Wu
Neurourology and Urodynamics. 2018;1–7.
DOI: 10.1002/nau.23704

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