I wish I could see a urologist about this--I have no insurance--so I thought I'd give this a shot first:
I'm a 30 year old male. Off and on for the past five months or so, I have had a constant urge to urinate. On a good day during these spells, I can keep my trips to the bathroom down to five a day, though the urge is always there; sometimes I can last five hours without going (I feel so proud of myself then), other times--even on the same day--I might barely make it more than an hour. More often than not, the stream is pretty small. The urge to urinate is actually strongest when I have just finished urinating (stronger, in fact, then right before urination), then after an hour or so it dies down somewhat.
There is never pain during urination, except for a little burning in rare instances, and I have never had to get up in the night to go. There has not been any incontinence so far, except on one occasion when a few small drops came onto my undershorts, but this may have been semen.
Also accompanying these symptoms, on occasion, is a low level, dull pain in my lower back.
About a month ago, I also got sick and thought this might be the early stages of kidney stones. I went to a instant care clinic and had a urinalysis done. The clinic's analysis was limited, but they found no bacteria and (I think) no blood.
In doing research on my symptoms, IC is what seemed to be the closest match, and I have tried to avoid the main problem foods (citrus, carbonation, chocolate, alcohol and coffee). This has seemed to help a little (bringing the number of trips per day down a bit).
I do have a family history of IC, as I'm told my maternal grandmother had it. I also seem to have IBS, though this has not been officially diagnosed either.
I appreciate any light anyone can shed on this. Thank you.