Living with Irritable Bowel Syndrome

How is it diagnosed?
If you see your doctor with symptoms that may be due to IBS, he or she will first take a detailed history, asking specifically about change in bowel habit and any abdominal pains. There is a wide range of symptoms that may occur in IBS but sufferers usually complain of one or more of the following:

• Abdominal pain, often colicky in nature, which may be relieved on opening the bowels. Pain may be worse when there is constipation, and for women it may vary according to their menstrual cycle.
• Abdominal discomfort with a feeling of being bloated with clothing feeling tight and uncomfortable; there may be an excess of flatulence with an easing of the symptoms on passing wind or belching. Although nausea may be a feature it is unusual for there to be vomiting.
• Change in bowel habit that may result in constipation, diarrhoea or an alternation between the two. No two people have the same bowel habit so the most important point here is that there is a change to the normal pattern for that person. There may be an urgency to open the bowels, or straining to pass a motion as well as a feeling that the bowel has not properly been emptied. An unpleasant condition called ‘proctalgia fugax’, or sudden sharp pains in the lower bowel, are a relatively common feature of IBS.
• Some women experience seemingly unrelated symptoms, such as fatigue, lower-back pain or urinary-tract pain.