IBS or not IBS?

[anbuma]

my dr keeps saying I have IBS.I don't think I do.As far as I know(and from previous experience)Ibs sufferers suffer constipation and diarrheoa.,I don't have any of these infact my bowels are quite normal.Has anyone elses's dr told them they have IBS when they don't suffer any of these.?

[pip_r]

Hi Anbuma,

Have you got any symptoms that would suggest to the dr you have IBS? Maybe bloating, discomfort or pain, stomach cramps? If you have zero symptoms it's so strange that he's suggested IBS.

I was the other way around. They opened me up (laparoscopy) when I was about 20 as they thought I might have endometriosis. After they found I didn't, they then realised/diagnosed irritable bowel syndrome. I wasn't impressed..!

Drs eh..! Mind you I have a brilliant one at the moment I am bery lucky I know, especially when you hear some of the things other people have to go through with their non-believing drs on this site.

Sorry I can't be more help.

Pip xx

[anbuma in reply to pip_r]

hi after my op (gallbladder removal)he said was i now satisfied it wasnt anything more.he said it was bloating but the first time he mentioned bloating was earlier this year and I ve had symptoms fro at least 2 years.before this none has fully explained everything and if they had I wouldn't have googled stuff on the internet looking fro answers.he is teh best dr in the practice but now I do know I have lupus and thyroid symptoms he is disregarding these.i do have discomfort and pain but most of that was gallstones -discovered by a private dr in January.i wouldnt have known I had them if left to my own dr and the after -op.

[Throid]

I don't know if my experience will be of any help to you at all but for 20 years I was diagnosed with 'irritable bowel' a condition which left me utterly disabled and housebound. I had plenty of unpleasant tests and doctors never seemed to find it unusual that I had such a level of disability and had to go to the loo 20 or 30 times a day.

I finally discovered that I suffer from lactose intolerance, cutting this out I 'cured' myself overnight with no help from the doctors I had seen.

The word 'irritable bowel' are like a red rag to a bull as far as I am concerned and I am left wondering how many other people out there are left to suffer in the way I was, I simply don't believe it exists and do believe there are other causes for these symptoms, but it seems like doctors will take the easy way out and produce a diagnosis that's easy for them and then they refuse to listen to you ultimately labelling you when you argue with them.

I can't believe that on top of my thyroid issues I had a completely curable condition that robbed me of years of life and I really feel for other people who are labelled with this so called condition. Could write a book about it! but in the end I would say to anyone, don't accept this diagnosis and keep searching for the answer, for me it was lactose and I would never have believed an intolerance could have caused so much pain or suffering - sadly I do believe that doctors frequently fail to correctly diagnose these conditions and at the end of the day we are left to our own devices.

[anbuma in reply to Throid]

I di ask him what can be done about it -he just looked up different meds,said no cos wont help with reducing stomach-no mention ever of intolerance to anything.i odnt each much of anything.