7 replies to this topic

[Kathleen M.]

Techinically, no, IBS will not cause pain in the organs of the stomach and esophagus.However it can cause pain in the part of the colon that is above the belly button. The colon isn't just in the lower half of the abdomen and comes up the right side to under the ribs, across the top of the abdomen just under the stomach, and then bends under the ribs on the left and goes down the whole left side.IBS can cause pain in any of those locations.Stomach (the organ) pain often feels more "chest" than abdomen/stomach for location but it can make that gnawing hunger kind of pain that isn't always what people feel with colon pain (but pain is so weird and subjective it is hard to know and often hard to tell the difference).Gnawing hunger like pain near center of the body high up in the abdomen by the chest can be gastritis or an ulcer so may need to be checked out. It can also be functional GI pain and so be just like IBS but actually be in the stomach. This is technically not IBS but technically would be called functional dyspepsia, but how the researchers divide things up isn't always how they do it in the clinic and some doctors call everything that can possibly go wrong functionally in the GI tract IBS even if technically it should only be in the colon and should always have stool issues associated with it.That being said, upper GI functional issues seem to be very common in IBS probably because what sets you up to get one probably isn't isolated just to one section of the GI tract so you can have both upper GI and lower GI functional illnesses in the same person.

[Kathleen M.]

Between all the biology classes and having IBS I've learned a lot over the years. :)Working on the anxiety will help as it never makes anything better.If the pain up top is new and bothersome it may be worth getting it checked out in case you do have something in the stomach that needs a different treatment.

[jennyk22]

Well, I don't have any advice to offer you, but I certainly can sympathize. My pain varies between two places: low and center, similar to menstrual cramps, and most often where you seem to be describing: center abdomen about two inches above my belly button, midway between my belly button and my ribs. Is this where you feel it? I thought that was my stomach too, but maybe it is part of the colon??

[jackobite]

I just completed a whole round of tests, and am recovering from a severe series of episodes, IBS diagnosis. I was really confused the whole time, bc most of my symptoms are upper abdominal pain too! But they tell me it's classic. It's just that upper abdominal pain isn't typically a sufferer's worst symptom. Sounds like there are some opinions as to a 'Pain-Predominant IBS', rather than D/C/A/PI. I get stitches under my ribs, and sometimes it develops into a really hard feeling in my stomach, like I swallowed a rock, and then really bad cramping happens. I have relief after a bm, but it's only for a little while. Did you get a diagnosis, or make any headway?