Abdominal Pain Symptoms & Causes | The Functional Gut Clinic

Abdominal Pain

Struggling with abdominal pain? Here’s what you need to know to find relief.

Learn about diagnostic testing

ALL TEST ARE ACCREDITED & REGULATED BY

What is abdominal pain?

Abdominal pain (often called stomach ache or tummy ache) is whenever you have pain between your chest and pelvic region.

This can be:

– Cramps or other intermittent or sharp pain

– Aches or dull pain

– Bloating and a general feeling of fullness

Abdominal pain usually gets better on its own or relatively quickly with simple treatments. However, some causes of abdominal pain can be more serious. If your symptoms are severe, frequent, and/or long-term, you should visit your GP to find the cause of your abdominal pain.

Why does abdominal pain happen?

There are many possible causes of abdominal pain, and your doctor or consultant can consider a wide range – from relatively minor to occasionally serious causes.

Our clinic looks at problems which may be caused by:

Delays in your food and drink moving on from your stomach (called gastroparesis)
Bowel spasms
Irritable bowel syndrome (IBS)
Too much bacteria in your small intestine (called small intestinal bacterial overgrowth, or SIBO)
Constipation
Food intolerances, especially lactose or fructose intolerance
Gastroesophageal reflux disease (dyspepsia)
An infection of Helicobacter pylori bacteria

Diagnosing abdominal pain

If you’re wondering why you have stomach pain, our tests could help to diagnose the causes of abdominal pain.

Testing options:

At the Functional Gut Clinic, we run the following tests, depending on your needs:

Gastric emptying test– which measures how quickly food leaves your stomach

Hydrogen and methane breath test– which finds out if you have an overgrowth of bacteria in your small intestine (called SIBO) or certain food intolerances (lactose or fructose)

Oesophageal manometry– which measures the function of your oesophagus (food pipe)

24-hour pH impedance monitoring– which looks at whether you have any reflux

Helicobacter pyloribreath test– a simple test to detect this bacteria

Find out more and book your test

Hear from people we’ve helped, just like you.

"Very professional while welcoming and friendly"

"The manner and demeanour of all staff from reception to people carrying out the test was very professional but welcoming and friendly. Atmosphere is very relaxed and all instructions clear and concise."

London Patient

"Highly recommend this"

"Thanks to Dr Hobson and everyone at the Functional Gut Clinic. The whole team is very kind and generous and they are doing things that are cutting edge and they actually get results."

Manchester Patient

"Highly recommend this"

"After stopping my lansoprazole, every time I had a warm drink, I could feel it burn all the way down to my stomach. Thank you to Sam for making me feel at ease." - Manchester Patient

"My experience could not be better"

"Pleasant and knowledgeable staff that made the experience more enjoyable than it should be!" - London Patient

"Very friendly and knowledgeable"

"An excellent service from beginning to end. I would recommend to anyone who was considering having testing done. Very friendly and knowledgeable!" - Manchester Patient

"Very kind and helpful"

"It was also great to have time to talk to the clinicians – very important when you have problems. Reception staff also very kind and helpful." - Manchester Patient