Irritable Bowel Syndrome (IBS) Treatment Online
You shouldn’t have to wait weeks for help when a flare hits. With Your Doctors Online, you can speak with a board-certified doctor from home 24/7, share your symptoms, and get a treatment plan that fits your needs. When medication is medically appropriate, your prescription can be sent to your pharmacy the same day.
How to get IBS treatment online
Talk to a board-certified doctor in three easy steps.
Describe your issue
Download our app, register and tell us about your medical issue to get started.
- IBS
- Anemia
- STD
- UTI
- Skin
- Covid
Chat with a doctor
Connect with a board-certified doctor. You can chat, send pictures and videos.
Hi Dr. Nicole, I have cramping, abdominal pain. Could this be due to my IBS?
Get online prescription
Our online doctors can help you with your medical issues and give you prescriptions.
Prescription
- Dicyclomine 20 mg, one tablet four times a day before meals
- Loperamide 2 mg, one tablet three times a day before meals
Send Prescription
What are the treatment options for IBS?
There is no single treatment for IBS. Your doctor will choose an approach based on your symptoms, and many people start with diet and lifestyle changes before trying medication.
- Low-FODMAP diet: This can help reduce IBS symptoms. You usually follow it for a few weeks, then gradually add foods back to identify your triggers. An online dietitian consultation can help you work through the diet.
- Fiber: Soluble fiber, such as psyllium and oats, can help with IBS symptoms. Increase it slowly to avoid worsening gas and bloating.
- For constipation: Laxatives can make bowel movements easier, and prescription medicines are available if constipation continues.
- For diarrhea: Medicines such as loperamide can help control diarrhea, while prescription treatment may be considered when symptoms continue.
- For pain and cramps: Medicines that relax the bowel can help with cramping and abdominal pain, with other options available when pain persists.
- For stress-related symptoms: Cognitive behavioral therapy and gut-directed hypnotherapy can help manage IBS symptoms, particularly when stress makes them worse.
If you are being evaluated for IBS for the first time, your doctor may recommend blood or stool tests to rule out other conditions that may have similar symptoms. Severe abdominal pain, vomiting, a hard or very swollen abdomen, or blood in your stool or vomit needs urgent in-person care.
What IBS medications can we prescribe online?
The right treatment depends on your type of IBS, your main symptoms, and what you have already tried. Your doctor will choose the option that fits you rather than simply working from a list. Some IBS medicines are not suitable for everyone and may require in-person care.
What is irritable bowel syndrome (IBS) and what causes it?
IBS is a common digestive condition that causes recurring abdominal pain and changes in bowel habits. It is a disorder of how the gut and brain communicate, which can make the intestines more sensitive and affect how quickly food moves through the digestive system. This can lead to bloating, diarrhea, constipation, or a combination of these symptoms.
IBS does not cause visible damage to the intestines or increase your risk of bowel cancer, but it can have a major impact on daily life. About 10 to 15 percent of people in the United States have IBS.
There is no single cause of IBS. Several factors may contribute:
- Changes in gut-brain signaling, which can make the intestines more sensitive to normal amounts of gas or stool
- Changes in bowel movement, causing food to move through the digestive tract too quickly or too slowly
- Changes in gut bacteria, which may affect digestion and bowel function
- Certain foods or food sensitivities that trigger symptoms
- Stress and emotional factors, which can affect how the gut functions and how strongly you feel digestive symptoms
- A previous stomach or intestinal infection, which can lead to post-infectious IBS
- Family history, as IBS can run in families
What are the symptoms of IBS?
IBS symptoms vary from person to person, and they tend to come and go. The two that have to be there are belly pain and a change in your bowel habits. Around those, the common ones are:
- Abdominal pain or cramping, often easing after a bowel movement
- Bloating and gas
- Diarrhea, constipation, or both at different times
- The feeling that you have not finished a bowel movement
- Whitish mucus in the stool
- Symptoms that get worse in the days around a period
IBS pain should not wake you out of sleep. Pain that does needs looking at for another cause.
IBS can develop after an infection, during periods of stress, or without a clear trigger. A doctor can review your symptoms and medical history to determine whether IBS is likely and whether you need tests to rule out other conditions.
How can you manage IBS symptoms at home?
You cannot prevent every IBS flare, but you can often reduce symptoms with a few changes you make at home. These steps can help you manage IBS between doctor visits:
- Keep a food and symptom diary for two weeks
- Add soluble fiber slowly to your diet
- Cut back on what stimulates the bowel, such as caffeinated drinks, tea, and colas
- Exercise can help lower overall IBS symptom scores.
- Protect your sleep and manage stress
FAQS about IBS treatment online
Can an online doctor diagnose IBS?
Yes, because there is no test that confirms IBS. It is diagnosed from your symptom pattern against a set rule: belly pain at least one day a week for three months, symptoms going back six months, and the pain tied to your bowel habits. What the doctor does have to do is rule out the conditions that look like IBS, so expect blood tests and sometimes a stool test, and a colonoscopy if there are warning signs or you are 45 or over and due for screening anyway.
How do I get a prescription for IBS?
Start a consultation in the app and describe what has been happening: how long, how often, what your stools look like, what you have already tried and which foods you suspect. A board-certified doctor reviews it and, when medication is medically appropriate, sends the prescription to the pharmacy you name the same day. If your symptoms need labs or an in-person exam first, the doctor will say so instead of prescribing around it.
What will a doctor prescribe for IBS?
It depends on your type and on which symptom is worst. For constipation, a polyethylene glycol laxative first, then linaclotide, plecanatide, tenapanor or lubiprostone. For diarrhea, loperamide first, then rifaximin as a 14-day course. For pain and cramping whatever your type, an antispasmodic like dicyclomine or hyoscyamine before meals, enteric-coated peppermint oil, or a low dose of a tricyclic such as amitriptyline built up slowly.
Can I get my IBS medication refilled online?
Yes, if you are already on it and it is working. Say what you take, the dose, how long you have been on it and how you are getting on, and the doctor can send a refill to your pharmacy when it is medically appropriate. Two exceptions: eluxadoline is a controlled substance and alosetron carries a boxed warning, so both are handled in person rather than by chat.
Which type of IBS do I have?
Look at your stools on the days things are off. If more than a quarter of them are hard or lumpy, that is IBS with constipation. If more than a quarter are loose or watery, that is IBS with diarrhea. More than a quarter of each is IBS with mixed habits. Plenty of people have normal days and abnormal days and do not fit one box cleanly, and a doctor can still diagnose IBS. The type matters because some medications only work for one type and can make another worse.
How do I know if it is IBS or something else?
The overlap is real, which is why IBS gets diagnosed with a rule rather than a feeling. If diarrhea is your pattern, the look-alikes are celiac disease, inflammatory bowel disease, microscopic colitis, bile acid diarrhea and a bacterial overgrowth in the small intestine. If constipation is your pattern, a slow bowel, a pelvic floor problem, an underactive thyroid or a medication side effect can all do the same thing. Blood in the stool, weight loss, fever, night-time diarrhea or symptoms starting after 50 all push the answer away from IBS and toward a closer look.
When does IBS become serious?
IBS itself does not become something else. It does not damage the intestines and it does not turn into cancer. What matters is spotting symptoms that were never IBS in the first place: blood in the stool, unplanned weight loss, fever or night sweats, diarrhea that wakes you at night, iron deficiency anemia on a blood test, or a first-ever start after 50. Those need testing, not management. Sudden severe pain with vomiting and no bowel movement, or blood in your stool or vomit, needs an emergency room.
Does the low FODMAP diet work for IBS?
It has more evidence behind it than any other diet for IBS, and it is the one the American Gastroenterological Association points to. It is also not a diet you stay on. It runs in three phases: four to six weeks with high FODMAP foods out, then a planned reintroduction, then a personalized version you can live with. Staying stuck in the restriction phase is how people end up with a shrinking food list and nutritional gaps. It is much easier to get right with a dietitian than alone.
What is the best probiotic for IBS?
There is no best one, and anyone naming you a specific strain is ahead of the evidence. NIDDK’s own line is that researchers are still studying whether probiotics help IBS, so nobody can honestly tell you which genus to buy. Some doctors do suggest one. If you want to try it, ask which and for how long rather than picking off a shelf, and keep your symptom diary running alongside it so you can actually tell whether it did anything.
Can stress cause IBS?
Day-to-day stress does not create IBS out of nothing, but it is not imaginary either. IBS is a disorder of gut-brain interaction, so the same nerves that carry stress signals also set how sensitive your gut is and how fast it moves. That is why a stressful week shows up in your bowels. It also means the treatments that work on that link are real treatments: cognitive behavioral therapy and gut-directed hypnotherapy both have evidence for reducing how often and how badly symptoms hit.
Can a stomach bug cause IBS?
It can trigger it. IBS that begins within a few months of an intestinal infection has its own name, post-infectious IBS, and food poisoning and parasites like giardia are both recognized starting points. It does not mean the infection is still there. It means the gut and the nerves feeding it did not settle back to normal afterwards, and the treatment is the same as for any other IBS.
How long does IBS last?
IBS is chronic, and the diagnosis needs at least six months of symptoms behind it, so it is not something that clears in a fortnight. But it comes and goes rather than running flat. Symptoms can get worse for a few weeks or a month and then ease off, and for some people they are there most of the time. Most people find a combination of diet, stress management and medication that shrinks the flares. Your life expectancy is the same as anyone else’s, and the diagnosis usually stays stable over the years rather than turning into something worse.
What happens if IBS goes untreated?
Not what people fear. Untreated IBS does not damage the bowel and it does not become cancer. What it does is keep taking things from you: work, sleep, plans, and food you used to eat. Constipation-predominant IBS left alone can bring on hemorrhoids, anal fissures and impacted stool, and living with unmanaged symptoms for years is linked to worse mood and worse sleep. All of that is treatable, which is the argument for doing something rather than waiting it out.
Get started today
Talk to online doctors now and get medical advice, online prescriptions, and referrals within minutes. On-demand healthcare services at your fingertips.
