Diet and Health FAQ

Tagged As: Crohns Syndrome

Question:
Can you have irritable bowel syndrome with blood in your stool?  I was given a diagnosis of IBS by my gastro and I'm a bit confused by this

Answer:
Bloody stools is not on anybody's list of symptoms for IBS.  People with IBS often have mucus in their stools, though.  Chances are he's diagnosed IBS because he feels confident he's ruled out ulcerative colitis and Crohn's disease with the biopsies and the sigmoidoscopy. I've observed that incidents like this are more often failures in patient education than failures in diagnosis.  In your place I might call and ask him to explain how he's ruled out these other conditions, considering the blood in your stools.  After that conversation you'll either understand his reasoning and feel reassured, or you'll feel like you need another gastro. It is possible to have IBS and an inflammatory bowel disease. IBS only affects the colon, while IBD can happen anywhere in the digestive tract. I was correctly dx'd with spastic colon (another name for IBS) but my very mild Crohn's was missed for years because it is in the small intestine (and it is quite mild). I'm not saying *you* have an IBD - it's possible that you have an internal hemorrhoid that is bleeding - just that it is possible to have both IBS and IBD. My (very mild) Crohn's is in the terminal ilieum, and sometimes the blood is fairly bright - but there's quite a bit more than from a hemorrhoid. Additionally, the pain I have during these blessedly infrequent episodes is so severe I literally cannot stand at times (and this again with *mild* Crohn's). This is anecdotal, of course, but I'm pretty sure all IBDs are even more painful than spastic colon.