Do I have Ibs at 17?

[Volvic]

I'm 17 years of age. Yesterday I had a appointment at the hospital and the doctor believes I may have ibs. My symptoms contain of diarrhoea, loose stools, abdominal pains, pains in the rib area, pains in arms, burning sensation in the stomach which rises to the chest whilst laying down, nausea, loss of sleep, loss of appetite, weight loss, feel faint all the time, I also get very heated, I seem to be burping a lot, and when I go to the toilet there is always mucus, I also have bad periods. I'm also now depressed and have anxiety as I have not left my house in months due to these symptoms. Does this sound like ibs? Please help.. Thanks

[ivesy]

sounds familiar. I would suggest you need more tests though to confirm the diagnosis, sunch as a colonoscopy/endoscopy. Also has anything changed in your life to trigger the symptoms?

[Lucyjanexx in reply to ivesy]

Hello ivesy, nope nothing has really changed I had a phobia of having to go for a poo in school so maybe its all happened because of that. Ever since I started high school I can remember being worried about going the toilet and holding it in until i got home

[ivesy in reply to Lucyjanexx]

It may sounds trivial but usually something triggers it. What did the doctor suggest you do? Did he give you anything to take?

[Lucyjanexx in reply to ivesy]

Oh I am awful sorry! I thought this was one of my posts an it isn't, I'm new here hahaah

[Volvic in reply to ivesy]

The doctor has suggested that I add more fibre to my diet and eat breakfast and more fruit as I hardly eat anything as I'm scared to go to the toilet. The doctor prescribed me Omeprazole to control the burning sensation. And I've been booked in for more tests..

[Volvic in reply to ivesy]

Nothing has really changed in my life, I do have stressful days as my niece has cerebral palsy and epilepsy so that's so stressful. And a few family issues but nothing too major..

[Jules40]

Hi sorry to read that you are poorly. Ibs is a digonised when other bowel issues are ruled out. Are the hospital testing you for celiac disease? A blood test then a camera into you bowel may be needed to look for other bowel conditions like Crohn's disease if no answer can be found for your issues lbs is given. Try not to worry and get answers, as treatment will depend on the results

[Volvic in reply to Jules40]

Yeah I had to have a few blood tests today. I have the camera procedure booked for a couple weeks away. I had the blood tests before, but they all come back not certain, but when I got the m today the nurse said that it was really weird as my blood wasn't coming out properly? Could this be connected do you think? Thank you

[Jules40 in reply to Volvic]

No I wouldn't worry, properly not a good vein

[Volvic in reply to Jules40]

Okay thank you

[Ellen6]

Sorry to hear this Volvic. My IBS started at 17. It's not unusual. It is good they are doing all the tests. Usually they diagnose IBS once other causes have been eliminated. I note someone else mentioned the coeliac test. It may be worth checking they are testing your bloods for this too ( incidentally if you are on a low gluten / low wheat diet then this test is invalid. You have to be eating wheat and gluten daily for some weeks for the coeliac test to be done) I'm only querying this because many people cut wheat out of their diets.

I hear you and feel for you. It is not easy when you bowel problems start so young. I was your age when mine started. 17 was a long time ago for me! But I can relate to it. I had the mucous thing too and sometimes it would just come out.

I think a good plan is to have all the tests, await the results and go from there. I don't come on the IBS forum much, but would be interested to know how you get on. Good luck.

[Volvic in reply to Ellen6]

Thankyou so much! I will keep you informed.

[Ellie9876]

Hey! I am going through the exact same symptoms as you, and I am 16, I have had multiple tests which have showed nothing if you found out if yours was IBS in the end I would love to know

[Volvic in reply to Ellie9876]

Bless you, I've also had tests that have showed up as nothing. I'm due in for tests next week for food intolerances, truthfully I'm hoping it is just a food intolerance. Have you found anything that helps?

[Ukbusybee]

Hi Volvic

Have you considered that you might have a food intolerances (or two)? Food intolerances cause inflammation in the digestive tract and, in my experience, cause the pain, discomfort and constipation (often alternating with diarrhoea) that seems to follow.

I've had IBS symptoms myself since late teens (mainly diarrhoea in early years, then a long period of alternating symptoms, then mainly constipation that progressively got worse). In the end I felt so bloated, nauseous, in much discomfort and generally unwell I was getting rather down and questioning why this had ben getting worse. I'd been given various medications by my Doctors over the years, had various tests (including celiac and gallbladder). I'd even had quite worrying symptoms like pain in my chest etc. It was at A&E that a nurse reassured me I wasn't having a heart attack but that it sounded gastric.

The penny dropped that it was probably food related so I did some research then resorted to York test to see if that gave me any answers. My results came back that I'm intolerant to eggs, milk, wheat, gluten, millet, yeast, crustaceans and coffee (a higher number than average!). I'm also borderline intolerant to another 7 items (chilli, buckwheat, brazils, sesame seeds, carrots, soya beans and coriander/ cumin/ dill). To be honest, I'd worked out over the years that I felt worse after eating anything too creamy, spicy or rich and also that milky coffee seemed to make me need the loo soon after!

Armed with this new info, I did a big bang approach and stopped eating all foods I'm intolerant to, and cut down all those I'm borderline to. Do you know what? I felt better within 3 days and actually 'normal' again within a couple of weeks. I've done a few of my own 'tests' since and I now notice that I react to eggs and shellfish within 2 hours (stomach pains), gluten within a day (i get fatigue , joint aches and pains and feeling itchy, particularly on the legs), and various symptoms soon after eating dairy or yeast (sickness and tummy problems mainly but have had rashes too). Sometimes I also have a cardio vascular response (palpitations or chest pain) after eating something accidentally or have a combo of borderline items. Recently, I've now started to notice other responses that indicate allergy/intolerance, such as a rash appearing on my stomach! The reactions are now so much more apparent if I'm exposed to them, since I don't eat the offending foods any more. The strange thing is, I never noticed any of these responses before, I just noticed the pain and sickness.

I now cut all these out and I do generally feel much better - but I won't lie - it's so hard! I've had a couple of IBS episodes since (probably stress related) but I've found that vegan probiotics have been very helpful (Acidophilus from Holland & Barrett).

I'm telling you this because doctors seem so unaware of the effects of food intolerances and the NHS is so ill-informed. If you think it's possible you could have some, check out yorktest.com and have a read. They test for IgG immune responses (the NHS only test for the more dramatic IgE responses), and are affiliated with York University, who they do their research with.

The test is expensive (a food and drink scan is £299 from memory) but what cost for good health? Anyway, let me know if you decide to try it out and, if so, how you get on. 👍🏼