Website launched to support people with undiagnosed gut issues

A website has been launched by healthcare organisations and charities to help provide answers and diagnosis for people experiencing unexplained gut problems.

The What’s Up With My Gut website, announced in a July 2024, is designed to support healthcare professionals to make informed diagnoses and help patients with ongoing gut issues understand what the cause of their problems may be.

It has been created by gut-related charities, including Coeliac UK and Crohn’s and Colitis UK, in collaboration with healthcare professional organisations and patients, using evidence-based information to improve the speed and accuracy of diagnosis of gut problems.

Heidi Urwin, director of evidence and policy at Coeliac UK, said: “If you have problems with your gut, not knowing the steps your GP may take or what will happen next can be stressful.

“It can also be difficult for healthcare professionals to always know the current best practice.

“The What’s Up With My Gut website aims to remove these worries and doubts, for both the patient and healthcare professional, and get those suffering with gut issues the answers they desperately need”.

For people trying to get a diagnosis, the website provides step-by-step guides to support and empower them to understand the actions their GP will take.

This includes when to see a GP, how to get the best out of GP appointments, which conditions the GP may look into, the tests and investigations your GP may consider, and what to do one you have your results.

For healthcare professionals, the website provides clear pathways to help patients get a diagnosis and has been endorsed by the Royal College of General Practitioners.

David Sanders, professor of gastroenterology at The University of Sheffield, an NHS consultant based in the academic unit of gastroenterology and a specialist in coeliac disease, said: “This is a good initiative, and another way to test for coeliac disease, particularly as the lower GI pathway involves surgical practitioners who might otherwise miss coeliac disease”.

Following these guidelines can help to shorten the time diagnosis, reduce variation among healthcare professionals and improve patients’ experiences of care.

The pathways include information on considerations to make and conditions to think about, investigations to consider, when to make a referral to a specialist, and red flags for cancer.