# Could that be IBS or a more serious issue?



## sufler (Mar 26, 2016)

Hello everyone, I'm new here, so I will tell a bit about myself.

I'm a young male, pushing 22 this year. Last fall I started studying medicine, which is known to be a very stressful and hard-time major.

The start of my academic education forced me to move to another city where my living conditions were far worse, as compared to what I had at home.

Also my daily routine has changed dramatically (going to bed earlier and getting up early ) and I started eating far less than I used to.

Anyway, I was doing fine under these new circumstances for about 3 months.

Of course, there were a lots of stressful moments where I had panic attacks or a sleepless night, but my bowel movements and abdomen comfort was totally normal.

Problems started about a week before the Christmas break... Since we were approaching the end of term a lot of exams accumulated in one time.

For about a week I had been experiencing a lot of gas in my belly, that made me feel uncomfortable, because I farted wherever I went.

When I was waiting for results of an important anatomy test which, as it turned out, I failed at, I started having a gnawing abdominal pain which lasted for a few days more with alternating intensity.

But after that it was only worse, my farts got awfully smelly I started having problems with my bowel movent regularity.

On the day that I had a huge biochemistry exam I let out a totally loose stool... It repeated for a few next weeks..

But that wasn't a typical diarrhea, the stools were loose but not that frequent (=< 2 a day). There were days when I had a "floating" stool in the morning, but very hard (constipated) in the evening.

All the time I experienced bloating, especially in the evening I felt like a pregnant woman







and gases, gases all day; also the bloating caused abdominal cramps.

After a month I realized that symptoms wouldn't let me alone, so I visited a private doctor for an ultrasound of my tummy. He said it was all completely fine as far as he coult see.

From the day of that USG examination my bowel movements got better. I think the important factor was the 2-week break from school, so I could relax at home.

But still I felt something was wrong because relatively good stools were accompanied with bloating and often feeling of imcomplete emptying... That is one of my main symptoms--

all the time I feel like there's something hanging down my anus :/

Two days before the new term started it all came back. I got a colic pain under ribs on the left side which lasted for about a week on... and so it goes...

Now it's almost 4 months since I've battling this symptoms. From time to time they differ in intensity. It happens to me to have a perfect huge stool once in a month, but then again it all gets worse.

However, the bloating, gases, mild, but irritaing abdominal colic-like pain accompany me most of the time. In the meantime I had my blood tests done and they turned out fine.

Most of time I feel like there's a boling pot in my abdomen, most of time I feel a movement down there or gurgling sounds.

I know it's funny for a medicine student to ask here, but I really need help. These symptoms are pretty tiring and they're making me very anxious about my health condiiton.

Do you think it's possible that this all is caused by univeristy-related stress and can this be a form of IBS ?
If so, why didn't my symptoms started after like a week of new school, when I felt stress already, but they needed time to develop.. is that possible in case of IBS ?

I forgot to add that these symptoms are aggravating my hemoroid pain. But hemoroids didn't appear now, actually I had them since I was a kid.
Do you think IBS can cause hemoroid pain as well?


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## LeahLeah1 (Apr 13, 2016)

Wow sounds like you have had a rough time with it  I'm 21 and have had ibs since I was 17 and mine was actually caused through the stress of A-Level exams so stress is definatly a huge part. I always get flare ups around assessment time for uni too.


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## Lucy998 (Apr 11, 2016)

I'm 17 years old, and I'm experiencing the same things pretty much. I have constipation, bloating, excessive gas, and terrible cramps and when I do go I end up not emptying everything. My doc keeps saying everything is fine, and of course I'm worried too but worrying about it just makes it worse. It definitely sounds like IBS to me if it worsens around times of anxiety... But I'm not a doctor so maybe just see a GI doctor and see what they say, but to me sounds like IBS since most people on this forum experience the same symptoms


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## Patrick ibs c (Mar 5, 2016)

anxiety of having ibs is common


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