Karen's Story

My name is Karen. I just wanted to share my story with you.

I was diagnosed with Crohn's disease when I was 17 years old. At that time, I was hospitalized several times and put on Prednisone and Azulfidine. I suffered with this disease all of my adult life. I lost weight and did not feel good most of the time.

As you all know, it was very hard to go anywhere because of the frequent bouts of diarrhea and pain. I got pregnant with my only son when I was 30.

This seemed to help a little with the diarrhea. It must be the hormones or something. Anyway, it helped. So, the years went by and then suddenly at 47 yrs. old, my periods stopped. I was in menopause. An amazing thing happened. With the occurrence of menopause, I no longer have ANY diarrhea. Now, I have constipation. How ironic!!

I went to the gastroenterologist, and had all the tests. He says I still have active crohn's, and now I also have IBS. I went from on extreme to the other. I have come full circle.