This Little Gut of Mine

I would like to say a massive thank you to everyone who has shared their story with me to feature on my blog. I'm hoping that these posts can become a place for people suffering with BAM symptoms or recently diagnosed to find support. Our first stories are from Joanne and Emma. Joanne was diagnosed with BAM this year and Emma is undiagnosed but has been given the medication due to having all the symptoms and a lack of facilities locally for a SeHCAT scan. Joanne's BAM Story Age 48 | Diagnosed in 2025 |  My symptoms started years ago most probably 20 plus. I always thought my issues was caused by endometriosis as it was stuck onto my bowl. My GP said it’s most probably irritable bowl syndrome which they had been saying g since I was 16 years old. That’s the doctors favourite saying. I've always had issues with the urgency to go to the toilet since I was very young, most probably aged 9. My mum always knew if she couldn't find me I'd be on the toilet. As I got...

  So, you’ve heard of Bile Acid Malabsorption (BAM) , but did you know there are actually different types  of it? Yep, BAM isn’t a one-size-fits-all condition. The symptoms might be similar (hello, unpredictable bathroom trips), but the causes can vary depending on which type you have. Let’s break it down in a simple, no-jargon way so you can finally understand what’s going on in your gut!

 Let’s talk about something that doesn’t get much love in the health world: bile acids . Never heard of them? Don’t worry—you’re not alone. But these little guys play a huge role in your digestion, and when they misbehave, it can really mess things up. That’s where Bile Acid Malabsorption, or BAM, comes in. Let’s break it all down in plain English.

  This is the story of how I was diagnosed with Bile Acid Malabsorption Where to start is a difficult one. It feels like I've struggled with digestive health problems forever, but if I think about it hard enough, in my teens I remember nights of sitting on the toilet with my quilt wrapped around me to keep me warm. I would be up all through the night with diarrhoea and then just as quickly as that had come on I would then not go to the toilet at all for almost a week. I would swing from constipation to diarrhoea with no explanation. When I was about 19 I was diagnosed with IBS because that is what the symptoms seemed to cover. In my early twenties I started to suffer more an more with pains in my stomach and back. The pains would be so bad they would travel down my legs. It took until I was about 27 for any doctor to actually take me seriously enough to have more test done. Due to inflammation markers in a stool sample I was sent for a colonoscopy and was told by the surgeon that ...