Is this IBS?

There are a number of people here who get anxiety attacks and they are linked to their IBS. For some people the fear of vomiting when they get a little nauseated is enough to make them panic. For others, it just seems that the need to go is so strong that it makes their hearts race and they break out in a cold sweat until they pass it.

Do you have regular stools when you have these attacks, or are they constipated or diarrhea?

Hi Shelle,
Welcome :)
I have anxiety disorder and IBS and its such a vicious cycle. Both play off of each other and its not fun. The best way to ease your anxiety with your IBS is always to know if and where the bathroom is wherever you go (sometimes that is enough to ease the tension). Like Keri said, many do have both. I hope you keep posting.
Take Care

Anxiety can cause this. Insomnia is a big part of anxiety and waking up with panic feelings. Very normal in A/P.

Keri, You have heard of it then, but it's just not a common thing. Well, I guess it's something I'll have to learn to live with. I just wish if it was going to happen it would happen in the daytime and not disrupt my sleep at night. It's not like I don't go in the day either! No, the only other symptom I sometimes have with it is nausea and shakiness.

I asked those questions because gall bladder attacks can wake you up in the middle of the night and make you nauseated and have yellow, burning diarrhea. But you will also hurt really bad. The symptoms can get worse overtime, so if you find that your symptoms change and you do start to hurt, vomit, have burning diarrhea, go back to a doctor and get checked out.

I didn't know that you could wake up in the middle of the night from an anxiety attack, but dbab's in the know on that one. Given that you don't have any of the other hallmark symptoms of gall bladder problems--and provided you don't develop them down the road--then you probably are just having an anxiety attack. I know, "just"--it doesn't seem like "just" an anxiety attack at 3 in the morning, but trust me, it could be worse. Bad gall bladders are certainly no fun--no fun at all.

Have you tried any relaxation techniques to try and destress yourself? Maybe yoga classes or meditation tapes? Can you see stressful places in your daily life and can you do anything to get rid of them or to make them less worrisome? You may want to see a doctor or therapist for some anxiety medicines if you don't find holistic things to work (anxiety medicines can have other side affects and tend to interact more with other medicines). Stress affects people in different ways--some get headaches, some stiff shoulders and neck and some get bowel problems.

There are a number of women on here who have horrible IBS and who also have ovarian cysts, fibroid tumors and endometriosis. I agree with you: crazy female hormones = crazy bowel problems. Hormones run the whole body, not just the sexual organs, so it seems to me to be perfectly logical that if you are out of balance hormonally in one place, it could affect the hormones controlling your digestive tract as well.

Speaking of which, have you ever gotten a full hormonal work up? You mention you feel flushed when the attack comes on. Could you be starting menopause? I think they even have a term now called "pre-meopause" where you have some of the symptoms and hormone fluctuations, but not enough to make your periods irregular or keep you from ovulating. Some women can start pretty early. And I seem to recall that one of the symptoms of menopause is a disruption of normal bowel function, but I can't be certain.

And, for future reference, it's not enough to do an ultrasound of the gall bladder--that only shows stones. You need a hida scan of the gall bladder as well to check function. Mine was "chronically inflamed"; it looked perfectly normal on an ultrasound, but it did show up as not functioning fully on the hydascan. But what you describe sounds like something else, especially since it seems to have really started after your ovarian cyst.

I don't know if they would put you on it with your having a cyst before, but I take Depo Provera. It keeps you from ovulating and from having a period. I don't seem to swing back and forth in terms of bowel function like most other women with IBS do. It does cause a slightly increased risk of cysts because an egg might try to get through, but doesn't because of the hormones, and then it forms a cyst. But it looks to me if you're prone to cysts, it would reduce the chance of you getting them because it tells your ovaries not to release them at all. Even if there is a slight risk there, it looks like it would be lower than what occurs naturally in someone prone to them. Some GYNs don't like Depo because there is an inital study out that seems to link it with bone loss, but they're not sure if the link is certain and not sure how long you have to be on it before it happens or whether bone loss is recoverable afterwards. Needless to say, they're still looking into that. And men especially don't seem to like women not having periods. They say it's not natural. But I read one female gyno's page that said having periods isn't natural; in the caveman days we would have gotten pregnant as soon as we hit puberty and would have stayed pregnant and nursing until meopause; a normal woman doesn't have many periods at all during her lifetime. Because it keeps you from ovulating and having a uterine lining, to some degree the Depo Provera replicates being pregnant. So I figure it's probably more natural than having a lot of periods. Not that mine were ever regular to start with. If nothing else, I shrug off the potential bone loss worries--the patch increases the chance of clots and those are life-threatening. Bone loss is not. That and every woman in my family has osteoporsis. One, it's not slowed any of them down any, so why worry?, and two, if I'm going to get it anyways, I might as well enjoy not having periods while I'm at it.

Weird. When I went to my gyno complaining about hair loss, she did the full work up on me, just to make sure there wasn't a hormonal reason for my hair to be falling out. Everything was within the normal range (despite the fact I didn't have regular periods). She said that irregular periods, unless they were too heavy or too painful, are actually not abnormal; some women have normal hormonal levels and irregular periods. And that sometimes you just shed hair. She said she had had larger than normal amounts come out before for no good reason and that as long as there wasn't a medical reason for it to come out, it would come back in. And it has. But I had never had a full hormonal work-up done, so it was probably pretty good that I went ahead and had it done to make sure there wasn't any wide variations. My mother had been pressing me to get it done for ages because she thought my irregular periods were abnormal. The also thought my mood swings were a result of a hormonal imbalance, but actually I really haven't had mood swings since I left home, LOL.

Some of the women that I worked with at my last job said that their gynos checked their hormones everytime they went for their yearly and they thought the fact that my doctor didn't check mine every time weird. Personally I like to avoid needles, so I'm not complaining. Now that I know everything's middle-of-the-road and I feel fine, there's no reason to suspect that I have anything wrong with my hormones. If that changes, then I will seek testing again. Be forewarned, I think all of my labwork was like $800. I had insurance, so I didn't pay anything on it, but if you're not fully covered, that can be a hefty amount.

You had an ovarian cyst and they didn't put you on birth control? My friend has had two cysts rupture on her and they put her on BC (even though she doesn't need it for any other reason ;-) ). They said it would help boost her regular hormones a bit and make her release her eggs properly so she wouldn't develop cysts again.

And I just heard on the news this morning that pre-menopause can start up to 15 years before regular meopause, so you're certainly of an age when it can start.

Maybe you need to see a different gyno and get a second opinion about the hormone testing. I agree that hormones vary on a daily basis, but I don't see why they can't detect a hormone that's outside of the normal fluctuation range.

I had hair loss, too. Clump and clumps of hair kept falling out and I even had bald spots on the sides of my head. I had never experienced hair loss before. That happened right after the cyst ruptured. My GYN didn't give me a reason why. She told me to see a dermatologist. The dermatologist just thought it happened because I went through a traumatic time from the cyst. She also said what your GYN said that sometimes it just happens. I'm glad yours grew back.

I never had irregular periods before. Mine were always right on schedule, never off by a day!

For sure the next time I see my doctor (this time I will schedule it with a different one in the practice), I will ask again about getting a hormonal work-up. An internist can do that, too, right? Or is it best to see a GYN? Do you know if you're supposed to have that done when you're feeling your worst or really it doesn't matter? We just got new health insurance. So far, it seems to be pretty good.

My GYN did mention to me about going on the pill after the cyst ruptured. I was leery about that option just because of all I heard about a possible link to breast cancer. That terrifies me because my mom died at age 54 from it. And my risk is even higher since it hit her before menopause. I was having really heavy periods before the cyst ruptured. A couple months after, my GYN did a D & C. She said that will make them really light the first few months. She said if they become heavy again to consider the pill or an IUD. Maybe now I may consider some type of BC if it will help with my hormones and help me feel more normal. It won't hurt to try and maybe it could be short-term.

I don't know who can order a hormonal workup--I don't know if an internest has that level of authority or not, but probably.

Pill - Possible link to breast cancer
Patch - Known link to blood clots
Injection - Possible link to bone loss

Personally, I'd rather risk the bone loss, despite a family history of osteoporosis, because bone loss won't kill you. Of course if you are having cysts, your own hormones may be out of whack and may have eleveated your risk for any of those things to what you'd get if you were on BC.

I'm of the firm belief that pretty much everything both causes and cures cancer. The studies that come out every day prove this theory. I think it's all just a crap shoot; if you spend your life terrified of getting something, you will not only lead a pretty miserable life, you will probably get it anyways because that's the way those things work. Me, I'm all about quality of life right now.

But, I haven't heard any links between IUDs and other problems. May be because some of them are still so new. But a couple of ladies on here really like the self-inserts. Some birth control pills/options can cause worse IBS, but the ladies on the IUDs say they don't have that problem since they are getting a much lower dosage of hormones and they stay concentrated in the uterus area.

Des, lol, I'm like you. I couldn't ever be on the pill because I'd never remember to take it every day. Sometimes I forget to take my Welchol and calcium, especially on the weekends and especially if we're gone somewhere, but my guts usually remind me after I eat breakfast that I haven't taken it. But I don't want any little reminders that I haven't taken my BC!!! That's part of the reason why I like the Depo Provera; I only have to get it every three months, so I mark my next time down on the calendar at work and I'm good to remember it.

I don't take meds for my osteo because of all the side effects and my stomach being the prime one as well as a history of strokes in the family. Osteo will not kill you on its own but believe me a broken hip in older age can kill people.

Any Dr. can order any test, whether they will or not is the question. There are no rules about who can order what.

One thing that can cause hair loss is thyroid, usually low. It is very important that any woman that has unexplained bloating, gas, pain but not necessairly all that have a complete exam by a gynocologist. I lost a very good friend to Ovarian cancer because the symptoms were the same as IBS and that is what she was being treated for till it was too late. I don't want to scare anyone but if you look up the symptoms for Ovarian cancer you will see that there are many of the same symptoms, not usually the diahrea or constipation. Although many ovarian cysts are not malignant if you do have on it does need to be checked out with an ultrasound to see what kind it is. After menapause they are even more prone to malignancy as before then they can disappear and are more homone related. It is something that many drs don't even think about. that is one reason why a CT scan when you have abdominal problems is a good thing as it will show cysts and then you can go from there.