Bloating that turns up most days, or never fully settles, usually has a cause worth naming rather than managing. The quiz above takes about two minutes and gives you an honest read on which of the usual patterns yours looks like. Below is what those patterns are, and what would actually tell them apart.
Bloating is the sensation of pressure or fullness in the abdomen. Distension is the visible part, where the abdomen measurably increases in size. They often occur together, but not always, and the difference matters: distension that builds through the day and settles overnight points somewhere different from constant pressure that never changes.
Most people describe it the same way regardless of cause, which is why the pattern matters more than the sensation. When it started, what it follows, whether it moves with your cycle, and what happens overnight are the questions that separate one cause from another.
There is no single cause, and treating it as one is why so many people cycle through probiotics and elimination diets without getting anywhere. These are the patterns a Naturopathic Doctor is trying to separate.
The usual ones, roughly in order of how often they turn up:
Some presentations need medical assessment first, and no quiz should be the thing that decides otherwise. Book with your physician rather than waiting if bloating comes with unintentional weight loss, blood in your stool, persistent vomiting, difficulty swallowing, a fever, severe or worsening pain, or if it began after the age of 50 without an obvious reason.
Persistent bloating with a change in appetite or pelvic pain should also be discussed with a physician, particularly for anyone with a family history of ovarian cancer. These are uncommon causes. They are also the ones where time matters.
In Ontario a Naturopathic Doctor can order a defined set of laboratory tests, which means bloating can be investigated rather than only advised on. What is worth ordering depends entirely on the pattern, which is the point of separating them first.
Coeliac screening is worth doing before removing gluten, because the test becomes unreliable once you have. Ferritin and a full thyroid panel are often informative, since both slow motility when low. Breath testing has a role where the history suggests overgrowth. Food sensitivity panels are the test people most often ask for and the one least likely to answer the question.
Constant bloating, as opposed to bloating after meals, more often points to motility, constipation, or a hormonal pattern than to a specific food. If it never settles overnight and does not vary with what you eat, a food-focused approach is unlikely to be the answer. That is worth investigating rather than managing indefinitely.
Bloating varies. It builds through the day, changes with meals, and is usually flatter in the morning. Body fat does not change hour to hour. If your abdomen is noticeably different first thing in the morning than it is at night, that is distension rather than fat.
Where the cause is something that can be investigated and corrected, yes. In Ontario a Naturopathic Doctor can order relevant laboratory tests, take a full history, and work through the patterns systematically. Where the picture suggests something that needs medical assessment or imaging, the right step is a referral, and they should say so.
It can be, but IBS is a diagnosis of exclusion rather than an explanation. Being told you have IBS does not identify why your gut is behaving that way. Many people carrying the label have an identifiable driver underneath it that was never looked for.
Usually not as a first step. IgG food panels commonly return long lists of positives that reflect exposure rather than reaction, and acting on them tends to narrow the diet without improving symptoms. A structured elimination and reintroduction answers the same question more reliably and costs nothing.
No. It is a structured way of describing your pattern so the conversation starts further along. A diagnosis requires a clinical assessment, and for some presentations it requires investigations a quiz cannot replace.
This page is for educational purposes and is not medical advice. A quiz result is not a diagnosis. Speak with a regulated health professional about your own situation.