Does IBS affect men and women differently?

Does IBS affect men and women differently?

Lin Chang (UCLA Division of Digestive Diseases) gives expert video advice on: What is 'irritable bowel syndrome' or IBS?; What does 'irritable' mean in terms of IBS?; What is a 'bowel'? and more...

IBS is more common in women. If you look at community studies, the ratio of women to men is about 1-2 women for one man. If you go into the health care seeking population, it's about 2-4 women for one man. So women are more likely seek healthcare for this symptoms. If you look at the different sub groups of IBS, where there's IBS with predominantly constipation, IBS predominantly with diarrhea and IBS mixed which means you have diarrhea and constipation. The female predominance or increase in female prevalence is mainly in the constipation subgroup, and other causes of constipation like chronic functional constipation is much more common in women. In general, women are more likely to be constipated than men. If you look at the IBS with diarrhea subgroup, that is pretty equal between men and women. And the mixed patterns, a little bit more women to men.