It’s an established fact as of today that women are more prone to acquire Irritable Bowel Syndrome than men resulting to more of them researching about possible IBS symptoms in women. Recent studies show that out of 4 IBS patients, 3 of them are women.
Causes of IBS Symptoms in Women
The probable reason behind this is because women can be more sensitive to the impacts of IBS compared to men. Also, more women are prone to developing depression, exacerbating the disease. Biologically speaking, women are also less combative of the disease compared to men. Sometimes, with sudden changes in their diet, women’s gastrointestinal system cannot adjust to one diet plan at a time, leading to IBM symptoms in women.
What are the different IBS symptoms in women?
More researchers are now trying to find the reasons why there are gender differences with IBS and have focused their attention to the
aspects of women’s health. Focusing on IBS symptoms in women, here are some of the significant findings discovered by researchers:
There is a scientific relation between IBS symptoms and menstrual cycle. It was found out that menstruation actually affects your gastrointestinal tract, leading to IBS symptoms in women. Although more research are still needed to confirm this statement, many medical researchers are now convinced that its most likely the changing levels of body hormones (estrogen and progesterone) that causes the changes in the rate of movement of contents in a woman’s colon.
Apparently, many women report a greater frequency in their bowel habit during their menstrual period, most particularly those who were constipated. Knowing this, we can only expect that IBS symptoms in women worsen during menstruation. This can be very uncomfortable, especially for women who are prone to experience the pain of dysmenorrhea as well.
Menstruation and Its Effects on IBS Symptoms in Women
Knowing that IBS symptoms in women are highly associated with menstruation, researchers have also discovered that for many women, pregnancy results in an improvement of symptoms of IBS. During menopause, the symptoms also substantially decrease.
Birth control pills or any hormone replacement therapy were not proven to have effect on symptoms of IBS no matter what the other resources/books tell you. It is true, however, that the occurrence of the symptoms is highly associated with the hormones estrogen and progesterone.
Statistical reports say that women who usually experience IBS-based symptoms during menstruation are at highest risks to be diagnosed with endometriosis and/or undergo hysterectomy (a surgical operation performed to remove a woman’s uterus/womb). Most of these women are also prone to complain of pelvic organ prolapsed symptoms.
Studies about women suffering from IBS show that many of these women may not have problems with their sex drive and their ability to achieve orgasm but a lot of them are having problems enjoying sexual intercourse.
History of women suffering from IBS tells that they were victims of sexual or severe physical abuse, regardless of whether these abuses are recent or were experienced during childhood.
Judging from the causes of IBS, one could tell that not only menstruation plays a role of why women are more prone to acquire the disease than men. Depression and anxiety were said to trigger the disease as well as frequent changes of the diet plan, not excluding the different eating disorders. Studies have proven that more women are likely to make frequent changes on their diet, develop eating disorders like anorexia or bulimia and are more likely to be easily depressed and anxious. All of these contribute to the exacerbation and recurrence of the disease. Sometimes, women tend to perceive abdominal problems differently from men as well, leading to more of them focusing on the symptoms while men only tend to disregard them. As a result, many women tend to change their diet plans abruptly, causing more gastrointestinal distress and perhaps recurrence of IBS symptoms in women.
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