IMO doctors don't have a clue about ' IBS' it's just a label they give to any symptoms involving digestive disorders and poop problems. They send you for all kinds of tests, and then do nothing. No wonder the NHS is in such a state
Let's face it, doctors don't have a clue - IBS Network
Let's face it, doctors don't have a clue
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edwangy
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My father in law went to the doctors complaining of constipation which I think he gets from time to time, went in for something else but dropped it into the conversation, a fit test and a scope later he’s now got flu probably from the hospital ( him and his wife are like hermits, only go out for grocery shopping and doctors appointments).
He’s 92. 😬
That is too much. At 92, why did they have to put him through that stuff? A colonoscopy I guess? Which would mean a sleepless night and all the things which go with it, trip to the hospital, stress etc.
They either don't do enough, or they do way too much with invasive diagnostics, on old and fragile people, And I bet he just wanted a gentle laxative!! Like they would have given him in the old days.
I hope he will recover OK from that nasty flu bug.
I agree with wanting to be a hermit. The world can be too harsh.
I agree. They generally leave us to handle it ourselves. It's a lottery, finding a doctor who can think, think laterally, and show any interest. Not just with IBS. It's happening with all sorts of illnesses. If they can't prescribe you a drug or two and send you home after a 10 minute consultation, then you basically hear nothing helpful.
My doctor wasn't bad, to be honest, and that was in the middle of lockdown 2020, so I am grateful for the attention I got and appropriate testing. It must have been rare as hen's teeth at that time. The "Low Fodmap Diet brochure" I was sent home with was helpful, but I was a complete novice then and felt very much alone struggling with unpredictable symptoms the Fodmap diet didn't address. Good treatment at the time, but zero follow up unless I wanted to bash my head on the brick wall of "the system" and keep confronting the receptionist dragons. Which I didn't. I did the rest on my own.
A friend's mother suffered from excruciating gut pain and constipation. Her gp just told her to take Metamucil. Thank goodness, she listened to her children, who advised to not do this till the cause of her pain would be found. She saw 7 doctors in 2 weeks, went every other day to see a different healthcare professional while in excruciating pain. The seventh doctor personally accompanied her to the hospital to make sure she would not be blown off again. She had emergency surgery the same day for bowel obstruction. Most oft her colon and all of her anus was taken out because they were totally necrosed. They told her that 24 hours more and she would have died. Of course she would have died sooner had she taken the Metamucil. This is only ONE of the worst stories I can tell about our Canadian medical system. My list is very long. I have two autoimmune diseases, that have been diagnosed so far, and some other issues (obviously 
) and decades of experience with doctors. It really is like playing the lottery, or roulette, in some cases like Russian roulette. I have not won very often. When I have I was euphoric. It might have even felt like I won the lottery (never actually have, so don't really know what THAT feels like). It is so amazing and mind blowing to feel listened to, cared for and respected...and actually receive answers to your questions without being made felt like a total nuisance. I cherish those rare experiences and try to hold on to them while trying to forget the less than optimal ones. The later are for learning purposes only.
May 2025 and all years thereafter bring us competent, compassionate doctors and the best health we can hope for. Happy New Year to all.🎉
👍🏻"May 2025 and all years thereafter bring us competent, compassionate doctors and the best health we can hope for🤞🏻. Happy New Year to all.🎉" buddy99
And a happy New Year to you too and all those other kind people on this forum. Greetings from Friesland/Fryslân, the Netherlands.
Hartelijk dank.
So no arguments there! A key reason why I'd always suggest seeing a qualified Nutritional Therapist specialising in the area. Have a great 2025 🍾
Nutritional Therapists make things even worse:
No 'nutritional therapist' or whatsoever for me either. Maybe a professional dietician but that is how far I would go based on my experiences with 'therapists' in the past. Only did cost me a fortune and didn't solve/alleviate any of my physical symptoms.
Rely on my own experiences, curiosity, gut instinct and perseverance and on the professional healthcare, although it's very difficult to get to the root cause of all my health symptoms because I still miss the holistic approach.
For 2025 I hope I will get there, that's my 'mission', beside riding my motorcycle now and then🙂🤞🏻, when I feel up to it. Perhaps untreatable, the root cause I mean, but a definite answer would give so much relief. Already dealing with the symptoms for decades and they are somewhat under control.
I think as long as you don’t take everything they say as gospel.
Mine was a useful experience, kind of backed up what I suspected.
I’ve given up asking for advice from the GP now, I try alternatives to help with flare ups.
If I left it up to them I’d probably be listed for all kinds of investigations when I know what the problem is.
I suffer from stress caused by a number of difficult situations, some I can resolve, others I will have to manage.
Probiotics helped me more than a trip to the docs ever have.
IBS (Alsok own as " I'm baffled syndrome " in our household. I have been mis diagnosed, put on the wrong medication for far too long. It was ENT who told me no one shod take it for more than 6 months. That was after 10 years!!!. He said you have been sedated for 10 years and tostop immediately. When I told them it didn't work they just kept increasing the dose. I was told to stop it immediately. Even that was wrong I should have been weaned off gradually. So went into an emotional melt down. I could go on but what good would it do. I tried complaining and to report it but have left it too long. That's cos I was in no fit state to handle it at the time.
I completely agree. Nearly forty years of 'it's IBS' and all the usual inconclusive tests, diets, etc.. Now symptoms mostly gone because I'm treating my own PA.
Spot on. The bowel is long. Mine is very long loopy and twisted. Some call it a redundant colon. I have had chronic gas, cramping, d, c, etc. for decades. I gave had polyps removed for which I am grateful. During the last colonoscopy the Dr doing it said the older he gets the less he understands the bowel. He said he has stopped reporting diverticulitis as most people have a few pockets seen via the scope. What irritates me is that the syptoms of IBS are severe, and doctors dismiss it , often saying something like increase fibre or take laxatives or gaviscon or stronger, etc. without proper thorough series of tests. They call it IBS when they don't know what it is , and it covers an umbrella of syndromes or symptoms. It is a cop out term. Ok, the bowel is irritated thus IBS, but we want to know why and what will make it better, not to be told try this. Proper testing is needed.
It’s because doctors and other medical professionals are taught to deal with clinical conditions - IBS is a dysfunction so it doesn’t show up in conventional clinical tests, which is why it’s a “diagnosis by exception”. But it is important to have the tests done to eliminate any clinical conditions; it’s just that a negative result doesn’t help solve the problem and the underlying cause is often elusive because there are simply no easy tests for what is actually a broad range of conditions. Whilst there is no excuse for dismissiveness, I wouldn’t be too hard on the medical profession as, if there were easy answers to IBS, there wouldn’t be so many of us on this forum!
I didn't mean to sound harsh on medical staff. I realised that IBS is unfathomable, and they are trying their best. Sorry if I sounded negative. It is just frustrating all round.
I agree with everything you say, at the same time there is a widespread and desperate need for primary health care that would provide appropriate support for patients who don't have conditions that can be diagnosed with simple scientific tests. It's great that this forum exists for us to share our stories and information, but should I really have to rely on other sufferers like xjrs for information about medical conditions? Or do my own research, which I may or may not be capable of?
A good healthcare system would provide access to relevant information, mediated by a healthcare professional who could interpret it for lay people, help us understand how it relates to our own experience, and put it in context. I wholeheartedly support the NHS and everyone who works in it, and am very grateful for the help I've had from it and that it exists, but at the same time I feel that it's failed both me and my daughter and that as a patient with chronic fatigue it's difficult and stressful to deal with doctors and specialists and battle the system as it exists.
I blame government funding pressure more than anything for problems I see with the system - if GPs were a bit less overworked and under constant time pressure, they might have more capacity to be sympathetic, more creative about designing new roles in their practices to meet unmet patient needs, to be perceptive and think outside the box when diagnosing patients.
I feel like most of the GPs I've seen haven't been as good at putting me at ease as most of the nurses I've seen, and that it's often been difficult to convey everything I thought was relevant to them, although I have no reason to doubt the GPs were kind and caring people. I would like doctors to receive more training on communication skills. Last time I saw a specialist, I took along a 2-page letter with everything I thought it would be helpful to tell him, and asked him to read it at the beginning. Which he did, but I'm not sure how well he understood or absorbed it since he then went back to what appeared to be his normal script and didn't refer to the contents much if at all. I came out with one new diagnosis so I guess it wasn't a total waste of time, but it didn't really add anything useful.
I think the medical profession, as well as patients, has a role to play in assessing and improving the system they work in.
I agree with much of what you say. The purpose of a diagnosis is to determine the right treatment, but a diagnosis of IBS is of little use in that regard.
The medical profession (whether private or NHS) is brilliant at dealing with acute issues (infections, injuries, etc), but very poor when it comes to chronic ones. Part of the reason for this is that, when some conditions become chronic, they no longer respond to conventional treatment. This means that doctors have to “think outside the box”; however, there would be good clinical and ethical reasons for not suggesting an unconventional treatment, because it could leave the doctor open to criticism if the treatment failed (or made things worse). What is needed is far more research into chronic conditions, but this is costly and the preference has always been rightly to target chronic issues which could be fatal (eg diabetes), rather than conditions such as IBS which, I believe, no one has ever died from. Realistically, I’m afraid we may simply have to rely on the generosity of private individuals to fund further research.
I agree far more research is very much needed, but I think access to research that's already been done is also a major issue. Also, chronic conditions that aren't directly life-threatening can nevertheless for some people be disabling, make it difficult or impossible to work, and therefore cost the government a lot of money over the long term (if the person gains access to financial support) or result in deaths (if the person cannot support themself adequately and no-one else is willing to take up the slack.)
Oh, absolutely. I had to take early retirement on medical grounds because of a little understood chronic condition. I’m afraid quality of life issues seem to be well down the list of medical priorities and, with NHS resources so strained at the moment, that is not going to change anytime soon. But I think chronic conditions which have significant quality of life issues are gradually becoming more of a recognised problem.
I worked as a nurse in the NHS for over 15 years under two different governments. Mainly Labour.
No amount of funding will cure its ills.
That’s why I decided not to renew my registration.
There is so much waste of money.
It needs reform from top to bottom.
That’s more complicated and politically sensitive . So instead we carry on chucking money at it and it continues floundering.
So if you were prime minister, what kind of new reformed NHS would you build? (thinking positive here, and interested in your insights on this, if you feel like sharing any - but no worries if you don't :))
Invest more in preventative health care, better use of pharmacies and their role in first line care.
Address the gap between the GP and the last resort of A and E.
No consultations behind a laptop. You shouldn’t need to have to get past the receptionist or a GP to make an appointment.
Target the time wasters instead. Clinicians know who they are.
30 years ago I had a conversation with a GP who told me half his waiting room didn’t need to be there.
For some it’s a day out.
I’ll start there.
I was diagnosed with IBS C and given linacoltide to help with the Constipation. I had a locum dr covering a maternity leave. She wasnt happy about all the investigations she arranged a scan and found out I had alot of gallstones which has been causing me issues with pain, currently waiting for surgery. I then had both my hips x-ray and both are completely knackered hence the pain in my grion area, which can cause the muscles to tighten up which makes BM difficult hence leading to Constipation. So to cut along story short i havent got IBS. So 3 years wasted.
This is interesting. I had my gallbladder out in the summer. I have been symptom free since.
You got there in the end though ! 😊 👍
Yes your absolutely right not a clue ! I was supposed to be referred to gastro in Sept ! Not a thing anyway the doctor had to phone me up because I have a smoothie from a dietician on prescription and now they cannot get them ! So have to have a different one . She looked at my notes and she forgot to refer me ! I've lost weight and have pain so charming eh ! And they have no idea about diet either they general docs some don't have another string to Thier bow . 👍
Beyond the usual advice anyone can read in the media, doctors are usually ignorant about nutrition. I once heard that during the (three or more...is it?) years a doctor trains, they have I think, a one or two day module in nutrition. Considering that bad nutrition can be the root cause of many ailments, that is a poor show.
When the gastroenterologist at the hospital, diagnosed ibs, I asked him what if anything I could do to alleviate the symptoms, his reply, eat more vegetables! This after I’d told him of my issues with certain foods including vegetables, I was dumbfounded, and disappointed. I didn’t expect him to wave a magic wand and make my symptoms disappear, but had hoped there would be some guidance
Oh dear , how disappointing for you, though unsurprising. 😬
In part, your words are true. In my case, despite the fact that I always knew that the problem was in my liver, doctors diagnosed me with IBS. I had to be very persistent to convince them to do a liver biopsy. After the biopsy, I was diagnosed with Nodular Regenerative Hyperplasia of the Liver (NRH). Although NRH is considered a rare condition, it can only be diagnosed by biopsy. Doctors almost never consider NRH as a possible option. I am sure that the disease is not rare but rather underdiagnosed given such difficulties with its confirmation. How can this be related to IBS. NRH compresses the liver with micronodules from the inside, which leads to symptoms of portal hypertension (non-cirrhotic).
Irritable bowel syndrome (IBS) is a diagnosis of exclusion, which is often given to patients with chronic abdominal symptoms in the absence of organic pathology. However, NRH, especially in the early stages, can hide under this diagnosis. Possible overlapping symptoms:
* Abdominal discomfort: bloating, pain and discomfort that may be related to portal vascular compromise.
* General symptoms: fatigue, sleep disturbances or cognitive problems due to minimal encephalopathy or increased ammonia levels.
* Gastrointestinal changes: mild steatorrhea or malabsorption, misinterpreted as functional bowel disorders.
These aspects suggest that a proportion of patients diagnosed with IBS, especially those unresponsive to standard treatment, may be harboring NRH or NCPH. Of course, I do not exclude that other errors in interpreting IBS symptoms are possible.
That's exactly the problem. They are taught nothing about nutrition and the whole body and how things relate to one another. They are taught how to prescribe medications that the pharmaceutical companies want to push, and that's it. Start doing your own research. Youtube has a wealth of information from real doctors who treat holistically. IBS is a catch-all label put on digestive issues that modern medicine has no idea how to treat because they have no idea what causes it. Holistic doctors do! Or a naturopath, if you can find one. I've taken matters into my own hands and I'm so much better off for it.
Interesting reading this thread… certainly agree that a diagnosis of IBS is of necessity (at the moment at least) a diagnosis of exclusion. This can leave many people completely in the dark when it comes to treating it, or being treated for it… but I do have quite a bit of sympathy for GP’s because they are under so much pressure time-wise these days, and IBS can be extremely difficult to treat since everyone’s experience of it - and subsequent response to the various treatments - appears to be unique.
Just know 20% of over 60s are vitamin B12 deficient. Most vegans and vegetarians are too. You only naturally get vitamin B12 from animal products. Oily fish, and red meat, grass fed animal, liver, are the best sources.Vitamin B12 is needed in so many body functions and deficiency is at the root of many autoimmune diseases. Anything that irritates your bowel can stop you absorbing it.
A healthy blood serum level is above 550pmol/mL. Doctors only deem you deficient under 150, so there is a big low area you can be bumping along and not get treatment. High homocysteine and non alcoholic fatty liver disease are signs of low B12.
You can't overdose so do try a supplement, or even get injections, but do get baseline blood tests done first.
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