Medical History and Physical Exam for Irritable Bowel Syndrome

Exam Overview

Medical and dietary history

To find out whether your symptoms meet the criteria for diagnosing irritable bowel syndrome (IBS), your doctor may ask you questions about:

• Recent stressful events in your life. Stress may be a strong indication that your symptoms may be caused by irritable bowel syndrome.
• Bowel function, including how many bowel movements you have each day or each week, whether you have constipation or diarrhea, whether you have noticed any blood or mucus in your stool, and any recent changes in your bowel habits or the shape of your stools.
• Whether your bowel movement patterns have any relationship to your abdominal pain (for example, if passing a stool relieves belly pain and cramping).
• Family history of similar symptoms.
• Family relationships that may be causing stress.
• Your use of laxatives or antacids.
• Things that may increase your risk of an intestinal infection, such as foreign travel, drinking untreated water, or recent antibiotic use.

The dietary history will include questions about food allergies and whether your symptoms seem to be related to any particular foods. Foods that most commonly cause symptoms include lactose (milk sugar) and sorbitol, an artificial sweetener found in sugarless chewing gum and other sugar-free products.

The doctor may suggest that for a period of time you try avoiding foods that seem to cause problems, to see if your symptoms get better.

Physical exam

To help find out whether you have irritable bowel syndrome, the doctor will perform a standard physical exam, including:

• Feeling the abdomen.
• A digital rectal exam.
• Listening for bowel sounds (with a stethoscope).
• A pelvic exam (in women).