Could this really just be IBS or shall I push for more with the doctors?

[Yourgirlhere1302]

If anyone on mumsnet has IBS please let me know if you can relate to these symptoms.

I have always heard of IBS, just never experienced it myself

Until I turned 30 years old. I have had bloating every single day, worse in the evenings. Going to the toilet multiple times. Sometimes constipated and sometimes the opposite. Pain in lower belly mainly. This “flare up” has been going on for 3 months. Every day! I also have been told I have PCOS due to having a womb scan. I have been told I am negative for blood in my FIT test (bowels)

Part of me thinks I should just now look into food diet for IBS and accept the diagnosis but the anxious person in me thinks I should ask for a colonoscopy.

Can IBS really be this bad?

They fail to detect nearly 9% of cancers, but double testing trials look like they catch 100%. Colonoscopies aren't failsafe either, but yes, I would ask for a colonoscopy too as per my other post, although GPs are often reluctant after a negative Fit test.

Sounds like IBS to me (I have IBS). Try a low FODMAP diet and see if it stops!

As well as diet, stress can make it worse for me, but it's mostly certain foods

As previous people have said, try doing the elimination diet, but in the meantime ask GP to be referred. Unfortunately Gastroenterology dept here in my area wait is 32 weeks just to see someone who will then decide if you need further testing, which again could be a further 6 month wait, but you will be in the system and may get help from the gastro team on diet. My DH had lower one sided pain, he was diagnosed with diverticulitis which is pain only and colitis symptoms of which does include bleeding, which was only found after having colonoscopy.

Yes IBS can be that bad.. you don't want a colonoscopy unnecessarily as they are like torture. Have you had stool tests for H.pylori, calprotectin and all bacterias? And blood test for coeliac. If all negative then they usually say IBS and don't put you through unnecessary procedures.

The failure of medical professionals to follow the proper pathway to diagnosing IBS is awful. IBS should never be diagnosed until ALL other possible conditions/diagnoses have been excluded. That includes screening for Coeliac disease, Inflammatory Bowel Diseases, and cancer.

There is a proper clinical pathway to diagnose IBS (once everything else is excluded), called Rome IV criteria - I would be surprised if many GPs have heard of it.

Do not simply follow a low FODMAPs diet. That should only be undertaken under the supervision of a Registered Dietitian, who has been trained in the diet. Again, too many GPs fob people off by telling them to look up this diet online. It is a three stage approach, but most people who attempt it on their own, end up stuck on the first phase, which is extremely restrictive, and is not intended to be followed long term.

A colonoscopy is the best way to exclude all the abovementioned alternative diagnoses. It doesn't matter how young you are - unfortunately, there is a rising number of people in their thirties and forties not being diagnosed with bowel cancer until it is quite advanced, because of clinicians who dismiss the symptoms because bowel cancer is "an old person's disease". A colonoscopy can also show the presence of diverticula in the large bowel which could also be responsible for your symptoms (also easily managed with the correct dietary approach - but different to the FODMAPs diet).

I have IBS, its triggered by some foods or combinations, and stress. For example I can eat either broccoli or courgettes in small portions, but not both together. Keep a food diary before you try FODMAP, and log when you have discomfort.
If you have a colonoscopy I strongly recommend you have sedation. You might have to push for it.