Potential hCG treatment for interstitial cystitis

“

Painful bladder syndrome (PBS) is a disease that dramatically reduces the quality of life of affected individuals. The severe pain that some women have 24/7 for more than 2 years can lead to depression, emotional setbacks, anxiety and suicidal thoughts. We must find new therapies to alleviate this pain and suffering. The scientific evidence support that treatment with human chorionic gonadotropin (hCG) can work against this disease. The recent anecdotal evidence that women with PBS, who are taking hCG, either as a part of weight loss program or for other reasons, report disease remission for at least 2 years. The author has the testimonials from some of these women. They are hoping that U.S. Food Drug Administration approves hCG therapy. Facebook pages chronicling their experiences can be found at: (https://www.facebook.com/InterstitialCystitisAssociation). Clearly we need large-scale placebo controlled randomized clinical trials with hCG. This hormone is already inexpensive and can even be made more so by scaling up its production. The side effects will be minimal, if any, and they do not require medical attention. The clinical trials should evaluate an optimal dose, frequency and route of administration. If the trials are affirmative, then it will provide a financial incentive to pharmaceutical industry to engage in developing more potent hCG analogs and test newer drug delivery technologies. PBS is less common among men and there is no down side to testing hCG in them as well. Finally, the author will be ecstatic when hCG therapy becomes a mainstay in sparing countless number of women across the world from an unnecessary pain and suffering due to PBS.

”