Ibuprofen/NSAIDs: yay or nay for pain?
TBC I'm not looking for explicit medical advice here, I'm purely seeking out anecdotal evidence on purpose.
So I am in the process of figuring out what is going on with my pelvic pain and I'm in the testing phase, but there seems to be a high likelihood that I have IC based on the fact that I have Chronic Idiopathic Urticaria (chronic hives). I thought it was kind of interesting that an IC friendly diet goes almost hand in hand with a low histamine diet. Finding out that IC is possibly related to autoimmune disorders or allergies made a lot of sense in my case. If anything, it's kind of crazy this didn't come up for me sooner.
With THAT being said, I have to give a short background. When diagnosed with hives, I was explicitly told to not take NSAIDs because NSAIDs can make hives worse (which is super ironic given the name, I know). I've had hives for 10 years now and because my condition is mostly well managed, I took ibuprofen from like 2016-2020, had one bad reaction to it that made me stop, and then a year ago, I had a doctor tell me that Tylenol could not help my pelvic pain and that I really needed to take Ibuprofen for it. I have been taking Ibuprofen, and my hives have been fine, so I'm not worried about a reaction. Finding out that my pelvic pain could very likely be IC (which could likely be tied to autoimmune problems) has made me conflicted.
My plan moving forward is "better safe than sorry" and go back to fully using Tylenol for my pain. It can't hurt to try an eliminate it to see if the inflammation goes down, right? I kind of just wanted to see what other people have been told: is it common to have bad reactions to NSAIDs with IC or to be flat out told "do not use NSAIDs" upon being diagnosed? Or is it the opposite? Is it widely known that NSAIDs are a "go to/gold standard" for pain? I'd just like to hear what other people go through or have been recommended. I don't expect there's a universal answer and I'm not looking for one, but it would be interesting to hear if anyone else is in a similar position. Thanks!
(Obviously if you have hives like me do NOT use me as proof that you can take NSAIDs. I have done so out of desperation and gotten lucky, you might not be so. And like I said, I'm not going to take or not take anything based on what people say here, I'm just curious as to what other people feel and have been told. It seems I'm already on a really good drug for IC and CHU, so moving forward, I'm probably mostly looking at making dietary changes.)