![]() ![]() Doctors have found that sometimes patients cannot always express themselves in a way that can get a doctor to diagnose correctly. If you think you may have either IBS or IBD, the first step is to see your primary care doctor and be forthcoming with your symptoms. A study published in January 2023 in Inflammatory Bowel Diseases found that while the clinical presentation of IBD was similar in both men and women, women had a higher percentage of misdiagnosis than men, which lengthened the time it took for them to get adequate treatment. Since women have a higher rate of IBS than men in general, doctors defer to it as a default diagnosis and automatically assume that women have IBS, not IBD. What is known is that women are often misdiagnosed with IBS. “They either just didn't go to the doctor for a long time, or they went to the doctor and the doctor presumed they had IBS without doing an appropriate screen.” “Patients who are young can compensate for their disease well,” says Dr. ![]() One of the most recent studies looking at the overlap between IBS and IBD was published in December 2018 in Inflammatory Bowel Diseases it found that around 20 percent of patients with Crohn’s disease or ulcerative colitis also manifested IBS symptoms.Īdditionally, some patients may describe symptoms that would suggest IBS over IBD. Doctors have misdiagnosed IBS for IBD or vice versa due to the similar symptoms they share. The similarities are not just confusing for everyday people. Stress is also a trigger for patients with IBS or IBD and can cause symptoms to flare, making it more challenging to identify which condition someone has, says Rabinowitz. Why Do IBS and IBD Get Confused for the Other?Ībdominal pain and diarrhea can occur for both IBS and IBD, and diarrhea for more than four weeks is a sign to have a conversation with your primary care physician and receive some testing. “IBD, when severe, can be quite serious and may even require surgery in some cases, which is not the case with IBS,” says Dr. People can unintentionally lose weight and be constantly tired, which may be the first symptoms they experience before feeling any pain. Like with IBS, someone with IBD may experience abdominal pain and diarrhea, but they can also have rectal bleeding and iron deficiency anemia. Crohn's disease can impact the digestive tract anywhere from the mouth to the rectum, while ulcerative colitis causes inflammation in the colon. Someone with IBD will have Crohn’s disease or ulcerative colitis, which are chronic, destructive autoimmune gut diseases. Meanwhile, only an estimated 3.1 million adults in the United States have been diagnosed with either Crohn’s disease or ulcerative colitis, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, accounting for 1.3 percent of the population. IBS is also more common in women than men, accounting for two out of every three cases. ![]() IBS is more common than IBD, affecting between 25 and 45 million people in the United States, according to the International Foundation for Gastrointestinal Disorders, or about 10 to 15 percent of the population. It doesn't shorten life spans or put people in the hospital.” “IBS is a quality-of-life problem and tends not to be dangerous. “IBS is a syndrome, which is really just a collection of symptoms and not a specific pathology or a specific disease,” says Jesse Stondell, MD, the program director of the department of gastroenterology at the University of California in Davis Health Medical Center. Some people with IBS may also have other distressing symptoms like abdominal pain. IBS can cause diarrhea or constipation, with some patients possibly experiencing a mixture of both. However, IBS and IBD have some key differences in symptoms and treatments. “It isn't surprising to us that patients are often confused, and a lot of the symptoms can overlap.”įurthermore, the two are not necessarily exclusive from each other.Ī systematic review published in the Journal of Gastroenterology in 2012 found that up to 40 percent of people with IBD also had IBS symptoms - statistics that experts still quote today. “IBS and IBD sound very similar,” says Loren Rabinowitz, MD, a gastroenterologist with Beth Israel Lahey Health in Boston. Two digestive health conditions, irritable bowel syndrome (IBS) and inflammatory bowel disease (IBD), even share a word in their name and a host of similar symptoms. When you are dealing with stomach pain, the internet is full of possible causes, sending most people down rabbit holes of possibilities. ![]()
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