Diagnosing Irritable Bowel Syndrome

If you are, or you suspect you are experiencing irritable bowel syndrome, it is important for you to visit your doctor. To determine positively that you have IBS, your doctor will do a thorough medical work up on you which usually includes interviewing you, the patient, with regard to symptoms together with examining you.

To make his diagnosis, your doctor will ask you about the pain, when and how often it comes on and what factors make it improve or worse. Your general practitioner will also likely question you regarding bowels, expressly to find out how frequently you visit the bathroom and what your bowel movements look like.

IBS does not have a diagnostic method, but a variety of lab tests might be done so that you can eliminate other potential issues. Taking a fecal sample for testing and performing a complete blood count panel are just two of the possible labs that may be performed. Your doctor will usually perform a more invasive procedure, such as a colonoscopy, so they may get a picture of your colon.

Your doctor puts an endoscope into your colon via your behind. The endoscopes imaging software transfers pictures of your insides to a screen so your physician can look at them clearly.

A tissue sample may be taken during the procedure. This involves removing a small piece of tissue from the bowel lining for examination in a laboratory. This test helps to rule out more serious conditions such as ulcerative colitis.

Your doctor might determine that you have IBS having reviewed your stated issues, frequency of stomach discomfort over the last 12 months, the beginning and cessation of discomfort relative to bowel movements as well as how often your bowels move and whether your bowel has changed, if examining your colon comes back with no helpful information.

Many doctors refer to a list of specific symptoms that must be present to make a diagnosis of IBS.

Symptoms include things like abdominal pain or discomfort for at least 12 weeks out of the previous 12 months. The weeks of pain may be spread out or sporadic.

Stomach discomfort will have 2 of three of the proceeding indicators:

1. It is relieved by having a bowel movement.
2. When it starts, there is a change in how often you have a bowel movement.
3. When it starts, there is a change in the form of the stool or the way it looks.

Other specific attributes must also be visible, like:

• A change in frequency of bowel movements

• Bowel movements look different

• Urgent need to defecate that is not controllable

• Difficulty or inability to pass stool

• Mucus in the stool

• Bloating

High temperature, loss of weight, bleeding and ongoing strong discomfort are not indications of IBS but may be signs of other issues such as inflamed bowels or, sometimes, cancer.

If you are less than fifty and have common symptoms of IBS, it’s quite likely will not need further tests. If you are exhibiting unexplained weight loss or blood in your stools, some further tests may be required.

If bowel problems are in your family history, if you’re presenting symptoms of diarrhea-specific IBS or if you are more than 50 years old and this is the first time you are experiencing indications of IBS, you may be admitted to the hospital for additional testing. This is because all of these can be linked to more serious underlying bowel conditions..