IBS: Key Signs and Symptoms
Doctors Look For
If distressing symptoms are especially prevalent an hour or so after eating a meal, this may be suggestive of IBS. Or you have abdominal pain or discomfort for 12 out of the last 52 weeks, and the pain has one of these features.
- Going to the bathroom makes it go away.
- You have significantly more bowel movements after the pain starts, or far fewer than before.
- After the pain starts, your stools become noticeably harder or softer.
It’s even more likely to be IBS if you also have one or more of these signs.
- You have more than three bowel movements a day or less than three a week.
- Your stools are either too loose or too hard in at least a quarter of your bowel movements.
- You need to strain when you go or you feel like you haven’t finished after leaving the bathroom.
- When the urge to go to the bathroom hits, you need to go right away.
- You occasionally or frequently have abdominal bloating or swelling. Some people also have gas.
- You see mucus in your stool more than 25 percent of the time.
© FCA Publishing
