location: CA

Your Question: I am about to turn 40 and other than Interstitial Cystitis (diagnosed about 8 years ago) I am in good health. I take Elmiron and it works well; I am pain free. As a child I grew up with 5 cats in the home before we know I was allergic. When we found out, I took allergy medicine. When I visit this cat at the shelter I take an allergy pill and I seem to be fine. My allergic reaction is sniffling and sneezing.

I would like to adopt this shelter kitty but am concerned about if my allergy to cats would make my IC worse?

Thank you for your help.

It is quite possible that you could safely adopt this cat. You would have to be vigilant in observing whether or not, your allergy symptoms are getting worse in a consistent way. Unfortunately, if you have allergies to other things, it might be difficult to tell which substance is causing the exacerbation of symptoms. Allergies are not always seasonal, but many are, so they will come and go. If you begin to have more symptoms, it might mean that you are going through what is for you, just a seasonal allergy time.

The fact that you have IC, indicates that the root of your allergy problems is that you a hormone imbalance. If you were to treat the hormone issue, most of the symptoms could go away. Hormones and allergies are very much interrelated. Where you find one, you find the other. We like to treat both problems at the same time.

I know that my answer seems a bit ambiguous, but since we haven’t had the opportunity to test you for hormones and allergies, it is difficult to answer in definitive terms.

Best regards,

Dorothy Dreux
Roby Institute