What Women Must Know About IBS

Irritable bowel syndrome (IBS)—also called "irritable bowel," "spastic colitis" or "spastic colon"—is a common condition that affects between 25 and 55 million Americans, the majority of whom are women. The condition most often occurs in people in their late teens to early 40s.

IBS is a combination of abdominal discomfort or pain, a subjective feeling of abdominal distention and altered bowel habits—either altered frequency (diarrhea or constipation) or altered stool form (thin, hard, or soft and liquid, increased mucus in the stool).

IBS is neither life-threatening nor does it make a person more likely to develop other conditions such as ulcerative colitis, Crohn's disease, colon cancer or any diseases of the heart or nerves. Yet IBS can significantly impair quality of life in those that have it. For example, people with IBS miss work three times more than people without IBS. And the condition is associated with absenteeism from school, decreased participation in activities of daily living, alterations of one's work setting (shifting to working at home, changing hours) or giving up work altogether.