Process of Diagnosis for Irritable Bowel Syndrome

The process of diagnosis for Irritable Bowel Syndrome (IBS) usually starts when you complain of one of the following symptoms: diarrhea that interrupts your sleep, blood in the stool, unexplained weight loss, fever and abdominal pains. Your doctor will need to know some background knowledge of what your experience has been. So it is best that you go, armed with some notes.

More specifically, he will need you to report if you have been suffering from the following instances:

-more than 3 bowel movements per day or less than 3 bowel movements per week

-lumpy, hard stool or loose, watery stool

-feeling of relief upon defecation

-straining during stool passage or a rushing to have a bowel movement

-presence in the stool of a white mucus

-bloated feeling; abdominal fullness or swelling

Additionally, if the symptoms occur in a fluctuating pattern, and if they appear most often during times of stress, then your doctor has reasons to suspect a case of IBS. IBS is often a stress-triggered condition, resulting in your irritable bowels.

For further confirmation of the diagnosis, you may be required to go through a blood test, a stool test and others. Stool tests are meant to detect any occult (hidden) blood in the stool. Your doctor may then follow these tests up with either a sigmoidoscopy or a colonoscopy. Both tests provide a visual examination of your gastrointestinal tract. A sigmoidoscopy allows him to look at your rectum and the sigmoid section of the large intestine; while an colonoscopy offers an inside view of the entire large bowel.

If he is not satisfied, he may even ask you to go through a barium enema. This is an x-ray of the bowel. You need to take it after your bowel has been distended by a barium-containing liquid and air.

On a further note, if your IBS is stress related, he may also asks you to some psychological tests for anxiety and depression. These can help to pinpoint the triggers to your IBS condition. They offer a guide to the total treatment plan for your IBS.