Keep your IBD history current
Bring diagnosis, disease location, procedures, objective test results, treatment response, and previous complications together. Symptoms and inflammation do not always move together.
Understand your gut health.
Make the whole story visible.
Connect digestive symptoms, test results, and daily life. Prepare for evaluation—or take a more informed role in living with Crohn’s disease or ulcerative colitis.
Your digestive health overview
Your history
- Symptoms
- A timeline of changes
- Test history
- Blood and stool results
- Daily impact
- Energy, sleep, and routines
Your records
Digestive health records
Bring results and specialist notes together
Your next conversation
What information would help my clinician evaluate these symptoms?
A QUESTION TO BRING TO YOUR CLINICIANStart with your symptoms.
Build a clearer picture.
IBD is different from the cancer screening pathways. There is no routine population screening program for IBD in people without symptoms.
Evaluation, rather than a screening score
Persistent digestive symptoms are assessed through your history, examination, and appropriate tests. A clinician may use blood or stool tests, endoscopy with biopsies, and imaging. Understand IBD evaluation.
Keep different questions separate
IBD, irritable bowel syndrome, infections, and other conditions can have overlapping symptoms. A diary cannot distinguish them on its own. Established colonic IBD may also require a separate colorectal cancer surveillance plan. Learn about diagnosis.
Use your records to prepare for care, rather than to calculate an IBD screening eligibility result. Severe pain, significant bleeding, dehydration, or rapidly worsening symptoms need prompt medical attention.
01
Bring your history together
Add previous tests, relevant history, and the changes you have noticed.
02
Understand the context
Explore guidance, see what is missing, and keep your questions visible.
03
Prepare for the conversation
Bring a useful history and focused questions to your care team.
The details
that matter.
The pattern over time matters: symptoms, tests, medicines, and how your days have changed. Start with what you know and add records as you find them.
A guide to the information to collect. You do not need to enter any personal information on this page.
01Symptoms and their timeline
When symptoms began, bowel frequency and consistency, urgency, visible blood, nighttime symptoms, pain, fever, weight changes, and impact on eating, sleep, school, or work.
02Previous tests and procedures
Blood tests, stool tests including infection testing or calprotectin when ordered, colonoscopy or other endoscopy, biopsies, and imaging. Save dates and original reports.
03Health history and possible contributors
Family history of IBD, recent travel or infections, antibiotics and other medicines, smoking, prior surgeries, and symptoms outside the gut such as joint, skin, or eye problems.
04If you already have an IBD diagnosis
Crohn’s disease or ulcerative colitis, location and extent, date of diagnosis, prior flares, hospital stays, operations, medicines tried, response, side effects, and your current monitoring plan.
Symptom journalTHIS WEEK
Today · 8:15 am
Bowel symptoms
Frequency, urgency, and blood recorded
Yesterday · 8:30 pm
Daily impact
Noted interrupted sleep and energy
Monday · 12:00 pm
Medicine context
Added a question about a possible side effect
Dates, details, and the impact on your day.
The days between visits
tell a story, too.
A regular log can make patterns easier to describe. Track the symptoms that matter to your situation without treating any single entry as a diagnosis or a flare score.
- Stool frequency, urgency, blood, and nighttime symptoms
- Abdominal pain, appetite, weight, and energy
- Medicines, missed doses, side effects, and life impact
Already diagnosed?
Your context matters.
For people living with Crohn’s disease or ulcerative colitis, the goal is an informed conversation about disease control, monitoring, and everyday wellbeing.
Understand management options
Explore medicines, monitoring, nutrition support, and surgery when appropriate. Learn how treatment goals and choices differ between Crohn’s disease and ulcerative colitis and across individual situations.
Explore research opportunities
Trials may consider IBD type, disease activity, test results, prior medicines, surgeries, and other health conditions. Compare study demands and travel with what fits your life; the study team determines eligibility.
Use what you learn to ask more focused questions and make decisions with your care team.
NIDDK: Crohn’s disease treatmentA few common
questions.
Can I be screened for IBD before I have symptoms?
There is no standard population screening program for IBD. If you are worried about family history or risk, discuss it with a clinician. New or ongoing digestive symptoms need evaluation.
Can a symptom tracker tell whether I am having a flare?
A log can help your team see changes, but symptoms alone do not prove active inflammation. Your clinician may need tests and other information before deciding whether treatment should change.
Is IBD the same as IBS?
No. Inflammatory bowel disease and irritable bowel syndrome are different conditions. Some symptoms overlap, which is one reason a clinical evaluation matters.
What about colorectal cancer screening if I have IBD?
Some people with longstanding IBD affecting the colon need surveillance that differs from average-risk screening. Duration, extent of disease, family history, and other factors influence the plan. Ask your gastroenterology team what applies to you.
The sources
behind the context.
U.S. guidance and patient education.
Reviewed for this draft: November 2026.
Recommendations can change. A clinician should confirm which guidance applies to your situation.
More of your story.
Better questions for your care.
Bring your history, questions, and next steps together.
Start my health story