Has cramping and abdominal pain become something you deal with regularly. If you are not sure what is causing the discomfort, but you are getting tired of trying to get through each day while dealing with it, you need to talk to your physician who can provide a referral for a gastroenterologist. The gastroenterologist is a medical professional who primarily focuses on stomach health, providing treatment for patients who may experience various stomach-related issues, including the abdominal pain and cramping that you are currently experiencing.

Why Is a Gastroenterologist Worth Seeing?

If you are having the random, unexplained stomach pain regularly and nothing that you are doing at home seems to help make a difference when you are trying to get relief, seeing a gastroenterologist is a good way to find out why your stomach is bothering you in the first place. While your diet can have something to do with the way your stomach feels, there could be much more to the pain you are feeling than you even realize, and the gastroenterologist is the one who will help you figure out the primary causes of your pain. Once those potential causes are identified, treatment may be discussed.

What Is the Appointment Going to Be Like?

The first appointment gives you a chance to openly discuss the pain you have been feeling. The gastroenterologist may need to ask questions about your bowel movements to find out what they are like, whether you are having hard stools, soft stools, or even diarrhea. Upon discussing what your bowel movements are like and going over some of your symptoms, you may need to have a colonoscopy performed. The colonoscopy gives the gastroenterologist an opportunity to see what is going on with your intestines while taking tests to determine what type of medical condition you may have. For example, you could have Crohn's disease. It is a bowel disease that can cause severe abdominal pain, along with quite a few other symptoms, such as weight loss and even a lack of appetite.

Based on your symptoms and the results from any tests that are performed, the gastroenterologist may provide you with a medical diagnosis that gives you some insight on what is causing you to feel the way that you are feeling. If you do receive a diagnosis for a medical condition, such as Crohn's disease, you can get a lot of information on the different treatments that are available to help people control the symptoms of the disease.

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