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[oceannir]

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I'm saying is there always underlying issues or is it sometimes just IBS? The specialists seem to all come to the "IBS" conclusion but they do this fairly complacently without testing for slow transit, outlet issues etc etc.The more time ive spent on here the more I realize that IBS isn't necessarily a real thing if it means constant constipation issues and that it is usually something a bit more 'real' and diagnozable like slow transit and outlet/pelvic floor dysfunction.However the fact that my symptoms vary and come back to normality and get worse on occasion leads the GI doctors to feel it is IBS and they are unwilling or uninterested in further testing. Is this a satisfactory outcome? Its IBS, take these supplements to help with the constipation? Or do you push for more in these situations? For most of my life ive thought IBS was a real thing and that if I had IBS that is the diagnosis and deal with it. But reading on here im starting to think maybe I should ask for further tests.

[Kathleen M.]

I think a lot of people with IBS-C it is "just" IBS. Particularly if their constipation symptoms are in the range of normal IBS constipation symptoms and not in the realm of slow transit constipation or outlet disorders.If you have 2-3 BMs a week and when you can go it may be a bit of a strain but nothing unusual it is probably IBS.If you have 2-3 BMs a month or strain for an hour before you can pass any stool even when you do things that make it so it should be easy to pass...that is an entirely different animal.It does seem that here we get a lot of people with the rarer issues rather than people with the milder end of IBS were it is a pain, but relatively easy to manage. People tend to show up here when things are worse, so I think our group here may have more people with other problems than the IBS population as a whole.I don't think everyone who has mild constipation that they can control with fiber and water or some osmotic laxative needs to go for all kinds of testing. However, if you are on the more severe end, or it is resists getting better with the standard types of treatments then you probably should get tested to see what is going on.That some people with symptoms worse than what you see with IBS have other things doesn't mean IBS is just something the doctors imagined and it isn't real. I mean just because some people have emphasema doesn't mean my asthma isn't a real thing and it must really be something much worse when I don't have symptoms of the more severe thing.

[oceannir]

Does IBS constipation show in constant requirement of fiber and osmotics? Or does it go through periods were they are not required? Also what are the set symptoms of outlet issues/Pelvic floor dysfunction compared to IBS constipation?I'm just trying to differentiate between "IBS" and "Slow Transit / Outlet Issues". One is a group function for constipation issues, the other is a physiological problem.

[truredhead]

Does IBS constipation show in constant requirement of fiber and osmotics? Or does it go through periods were they are not required? Also what are the set symptoms of outlet issues/Pelvic floor dysfunction compared to IBS constipation?I'm just trying to differentiate between "IBS" and "Slow Transit / Outlet Issues". One is a group function for constipation issues, the other is a physiological problem.

I too have the pelvic floor issues. I had a hysterectomy, and 4 months later had to have a bladder repair, now I have a rectocele with a vaginal vault prolapse. I do have fibromyalgia with IBS-C but I wonder what is causing my troubles, IS it IBS or the vaginal vault prolapse? I hope to have the surgery in a few months, I now wear a pessary but it is so hard having BM's. So I guess it is a double whammy as they say!