Common symptoms of IBS

The main symptoms

• Abdominal pain or discomfort — usually comes and goes, and often eases somewhat after a bowel movement.
• Gas — building up after meals, with belching or movement in the abdomen.
• Bloating — a distended, tight, heavy abdomen, often worse as the day goes on.
• Constipation — hard or infrequent stools, with straining.
• Diarrhoea — loose stools, sometimes with sudden urgency.
• Changes in bowel habit — constipation, diarrhoea, or an alternating pattern between the two.
• A feeling of incomplete evacuation — feeling unfinished even after passing stool.

Symptoms arrive in waves

One hallmark of IBS is that it does not stay constant. Some weeks pass almost normally, and then a difficult stretch raises everything again. That is why looking at patterns across weeks is far more useful than drawing conclusions from a single day.

These are not IBS symptoms

Blood in the stool, unexplained weight loss, fever, pain that wakes you at night, persistent vomiting, anaemia, or symptoms that start for the first time after the age of 50 should not be assumed to be IBS. These need medical assessment straight away.

Please note

This page is general health education, not a diagnosis. Persistent, severe or new symptoms — and warning signs such as blood in the stool, unexplained weight loss, fever, repeated vomiting or anaemia — need a qualified healthcare professional. Our guidance works alongside your doctor's care, never in place of it.