Bowel Cancer or IBS??? Can anyone help???

Hi sorry this is my first post after just finding this website by pure chance.

I am absolutely panicked/beside myself/hysterical/cannot function with new stomach issues which started about 4/6 weeks ago.

A bit of background about me: i am a 47 year old woman with type 1 diabetes (insulin dependent) which i have had for 22 years. I started suffering from health anxiety about 5 years ago and find it completely consuming (when im in the panic) but can be forgotten about until the next health scare. I am writing this hoping im on the right path as i am so hysterical right now i cannot see the screen for tears so apologies in advance for typos.

Everything was fine until I started having low down abdominal pain but this soon radiated to my upper abdomen also. Then ofcourse the mind kicked and i soon started having diarrhoea. Ovet the hours everything became worse and my anxiety took off as did my diarrhoea. I called my gp the next day and she asked me to go up to be examined and take urine sample. She checked my urine (ok) she examined my stomach (everything fealt fine) and thought i had probably picked up a bug. Everything was fine for about a week then it all came back again, i phoned gp again and she organised for me to get my bloods checked and check for ovarian issues. After a stressful 3 days my results came back clear. Again i was ok fot a few days then the TERRIBLE diarrhoea started again with low stomach cramps, then this terrible pain moves up into my upper abdomen and travels to my back, this seems to last for 24 hours then disappears (Btw no blood in my poo and i also did a chemist test for bowel cancer and it came back with no blood). Unfortunately 3 days ago the whole cycle happened again but today I have the most awful wind which i cannot get rid of, it’s causing upper stomach pain, and feel totally bloated. Could anyone help put my mind at ease if they think this could be bowel cancer? So sorry also meant to say i had a colonoscopy 2 years ago (I thought I had blood in my poo) it came back negative and they suggested I have IBS??

Anyone’s advice would be so helpful I feel as if im going to have a nervous breakdown, thanks in advance

Poor you, sounds like you’re going through a rubbish time.

All your tests results are great. I know you are still uncertain but it does sound like it could be ibs. Could you maybe start keeping. Food diary to see if there’s something that sets it off? But also, how was your anxiety before these attacks happened? Was it bad up to a few days before? Do you have anything in place to help your anxiety?

It doesn’t sound like you have anything worse than anxiety related ibs. Which I know is horrible, but it’s not the big scary thing that you’re focusing on.


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Hi Scass thank you so much for your reply, it is very much appreciated......and yes my anxiety was through the roof just before this happened. I am petrified of getting Covid as i am extremely at risk being diabetic, and i have not been out the house since March last year and I think just before this period i was just super stressed about the whole situation and my anxiety has become so much worse with not being out. The good news is that for this week my stomach has been so much better which ofcourse in turn makes my anxiety better, but it’s always just there waiting 😞 my main worry was definitely bowel cancer but thankfully I do think (for today anyway) it could be IBS.......a food diary is a great idea so I will definitely do that to help eliminate any danger foods that could spark it off .......again thanks so much for your reply.........do you suffer from IBS also??

If you had a colonoscopy 2 years ago, it’s very unlikely, perhaps even impossible, that you have bowel cancer as they would have seen it on there. If they think it was a bug you might ask for a follow up stool test to make sure you kicked it, but other than that it doesn’t sound like anything to worry about. I’ve been in your shoes and understand how awful it is, an infection actually started off my health anxiety related to bowel cancer about a year ago. I haven’t been diagnosed with anything more sinister than IBS.

Hi Librella thanks for your reply, thankfully i have since looked up about having a clear colonoscopy and it says it is clear for 5-10 years.......but ofcourse as the anxiety kicks in you start to even doubt health professionals 😫 i do definitely agree and think it was a bug which has kicked it off and sorry to hear about your worries and panic, it is definitely debilitating.....i have definitely been feeling better this week but sometimes you just start to panic about what the next panic attack will be and every time it happens it is worse than the last time.....:but iv had a pretty good week so hopefully this will continue.........do you get regular flair ups with your ibs? That ofcourse is the next panic, panicking when the next flair up will be 🤔

I have been having very similar symptoms recently- and (apart from jumping to all the usual HA worst case scenarios) - I wonder if it might be some kind of bug? Also, of course, IBS can easily be the culprit. I do think that a clear colonoscopy rules out bowel cancer in your case.... xx

I have a flare up at least a couple of times a month. And it usually lasts 1-3 days. Anxiety, something I ate, lack of sleep, seems like anything can trigger it. I also have lesser symptoms almost daily. I take peppermint capsules to help with that and also have some meds my GI prescribed for cramps during flare ups.