Autoimmune disease (?)

[Ruby]

In my case, I think that IC has to do with having an inflammatory autoimmune disease. Or maybe the dryness in the bladder.

There's a very large population of people who have autoimmune disease and they also have IC.

But that doesn't explain why some other folks have IC without the inflammatory autoimmune disease component.

[darlene]

Ruby, nobody knows at this time if IC is autoimmune. There are probably several subtypes of IC, so who knows, maybe some IC is autoimmune and some types are not.

[Mary from AZ]

I do believe there is a connection .... I have an autoimmune disease & have also been diagnosed with IC .... I think it all started when I developed pre-eclampsia when I was pregnant ... also found out thru Dr. Vliet that I am very very low in estrogen ... estrogen suppresses you immune system by the way ... it makes since that you don't have proper estrogen levels - that could also effect your immune system doesn't it? Perhaps that is why I developed the problems in my pregnancy 2 yrs ago .... and my body starting fighting the baby ... my immune sytem is fighting too hard in other words ...
I don't know all the answers - I would like to find a good immunologist (sp?) ....