If you suspect that you are experiencing Irritable Bowel Syndrome, it’s important for you to visit your doctor. To determine positively that you have IBS, your general practitioner will do a thorough medical work up on you and that commonly includes interviewing you, the patient, with regard to symptoms as well as giving you an exam.

In order to make a diagnosis, your physician will ask you questions about your pain, when it comes onand what makes it better or worsen. He or she may additionally ask you about your bowel movements, with inquiries about how often you open your bowels and what your feces look like.

There is no precise test for IBS, although diagnostic tests may be carried out to exclude other problems. These types of tests could consist of stool sample tests, blood testing, and x-rays. Commonly, a general practitioner will perform a sigmoidoscopy, or colonoscopy, which allows him to look inside the colon.

This is done by inserting a small, flexible tube with a camera on the end of it through the anus. The endoscopes imaging software transfers pictures of your insides to a screen so your physician can look at them clearly.

A tissue sample may be taken during the procedure. This involves removing a small piece of tissue from the bowel lining for examination in a laboratory. A biopsy will eliminate the presence of other conditions like colon cancer.

If your test results are negative, the physician may diagnose IBS based on your symptoms, which includes how often you have had abdominal pain or discomfort during the past year, when the pain starts and stops in relation to bowel function, and how your bowel frequency and stool consistency have changed.

Like many illnesses, physicians match symptoms to a review of typical issues in order to determine whether a patient has IBS.

Signs that you could be experiencing IBS include stomach pain for a minimum of one week per month over the last year. These 12 weeks do not have to be consecutive.

The abdominal pain or discomfort has two of the following three features:

1.Pain disappears once you vacate your bowels.

2.Frequency of defecation is altered when pain begins.

3.Consistency or look of bowel movement is altered when pain begins.

Certain symptoms must also be present, such as

How often the bowel movements occur is altered

a change in appearance of bowel movements

feelings of uncontrollable urgency to have a bowel movement

constipation or person is unable to have a bowel movement

mucus in the stoolabdominal puffiness

High temperature, loss of weight, bleeding and ongoing strong discomfort are not indications of IBS but may be signs of other issues such as inflamed bowels or, sometimes, cancer.

If you are less than fifty and have the usual indicators of IBS, it’s probably will not need further tests.

However, if you have unusual symptoms, such as losing weight or finding blood in your feces, then you may need further tests.

Your physician may send you to the hospital for some further tests if there is a family history of bowel problems, are over 50 and have recently developed IBS for the first time, or if you have the diarrhea-only type of IBS. This is because all of these can be linked to more serious underlying bowel conditions..