Can you have IBS-D without the pain?

I don't have an answer for you. But i'm in a similar boat. I'm 26 and i remember a few years ago i've had bouts of this. There's no pain associated, just that i HAVE to go, and it's not watery of late, it's just loose. I haven't had a diagnosis yet, still waiting on the results from various tests. Actually i'm unsure it's IBS for me at all, my girlfriend has it now too... so could it be a parasite or something that's causing this? Big question marks over my head right now.

No worries Gymrat. I've had a lower abdominal xray, and a stool test. Neither showed anything. Now i'm having another stool test and a blood test. If they're still at a loss as to why this is happening, i'm in for a colonscopy.

Right now no diagnosis.

I'm kind of like this, too.
Diarrhea/loose stools for 4 months NO NORMAL BM's since then.
Have had all the tests, GI Dr says IBS-D.
Weight loss of 20 pounds. Hair falling out.
Not much in the way of pain. Lots of rumbling and gurgling. A little bloating.
Very stressed out and anxious over all of this.
Sometimes I think it's getting a little better only to have it get bad again.
Every time I go to the bathroom I am in a panic about what is going to come out. If it's "looser" than last time, I get even more anxious and depressed.
Only thing that's helped much so far is Ativan which I am taking for the anxiety.
Have first visit at psychiatrist today to consult over all of this and see what she thinks I should do.
If I could just convince myself it's really IBS-D, I think I would feel alot better. But since I don't "fit neatly" in the IBS-D criteria I question, question and worry.

Sami

One thing I have learned about IBS: no one fits neatly into the Rome Criteria for IBS. There are plenty of people on here who are awakened with diarrhea in the middle of the night and most doctors will tell you that's not typical of IBS. But obviously it is for them, because there's nothing else they could have. There are other people on here who don't have pain or who don't usually have pain. While pain is supposed to be one of the hallmarks of IBS, for some people it's just constant constipation or diarrhea without any other symptoms.

IBS is all about functionality. If your guts don't function normally, in any way, and there's no other known cause--allergies, bacterial infection, inflammation/ulceration, etc--then it's IBS. What dysfunction your guts display is really rather irrelevant; that they are dysfunctional is all that matters. Because this is a functionality problem, not a disease, it doesn't have clear-cut boundaries of "yes, this is a symptom" and "no, this isn't a symptom". It's rather like a man being impotent. It doesn't matter in what way he's dysfunctional--all that matters is that he is. And there is no one particular reason why a man becomes impotant; for some it's stress, for others low hormones, for some fear, for some boredom, etc., etc. That's why it was an untreatable condition until Viagra came out--it was hard to treat a functional problem that had more than one source for the problem. It's not like treating strep throat which is caused by one bacteria that always causes the same symptoms. Maybe one day they will find the equivalent of Viagra for our guts--something that makes them work, regardless of how or why they are dysfunctional.

Won't everyone be "excited" when they do come up with the equivalent of Viagra for IBS? ROFL