Bladder pain syndrome/interstitial cystitis is associated with hyperthyroidism.

Abstract

BackgroundAlthough the etiology of bladder pain syndrome/interstitial cystitis (BPS/IC) is still unclear, a common theme with BPS/IC patients is comorbid disorders which are related to the autonomic nervous system that connects the nervous system to end-organs. Nevertheless, no study to date has reported the association between hyperthyroidism and BPS/IC. In this study, we examined the association of IC/BPS with having previously been diagnosed with hyperthyroidism in Taiwan.DesignData in this study were retrieved from the Longitudinal Health Insurance Database. Our study consisted of 736 female cases with BPS/IC and 2208 randomly selected female controls. We performed a conditional logistic regression to calculate the odds ratio (OR) for having previously been diagnosed with hyperthyroidism between cases and controls.ResultsOf the 2944 sampled subjects, there was a significant difference in the prevalence of prior hyperthyroidism between cases and controls (3.3% vs. 1.5%, pConclusionsOur study results indicated an association between hyperthyroidism and BPS/IC. We suggest that clinicians treating female subjects with hyperthyroidism be alert to urinary complaints in this population.