Yesterday, one of my patients emailed and asked me a question about another patient who had told her about hormone therapy for Interstitial Cystitis. She said she had been doing much better since she had received it. While in some cases, hormones may make a difference in your symptoms, and even I once thought that in some cases hormone therapy was a must, my experience has been that hormones simply cycle problems back eventually, create other problems of imbalance that lead to more complicated conditions, and put the patient at a much higher risk for very serious diseases such as cancer. Hormonal problems are often involved in interstitial cystitis, but, I believe that it is a secondary problem to the main issue, it is not the primary problem. A person will experience a worsening of her symtoms around ovulation and menstruation, ut this is not because her hormones are the problem, it is because the hormonal fluctuations exacerbate the problem. So, using hromones to correct these shifts does not correct the problem, it simply temporarily compensates for it. And, taking that approach puts a person at a much higher risk for more chronic diseases down the line such as allergies, arthritis, chronic fatigue, weight problems, skin problems, digestive problems, a stronger more viscious form of IC, and finally even cancer! This is my opinion based on my experience.