What are the symptoms of Crohn's disease?

General: The severity of Crohn's disease symptoms varies among patients, and they may develop gradually or come on suddenly. Some people may experience long periods with no symptoms, while others may experience chronic or recurrent symptoms.

Common symptoms: The most common symptoms of Crohn's disease are diarrhea (ranging from mild to severe), abdominal pain, decreased appetite, and weight loss. If the diarrhea is extreme, it may lead to dehydration, increased heartbeat, and decreased blood pressure. As food moves through inflamed areas of the gastrointestinal tract, it may cause bleeding. If a person frequently loses blood in the stool, anemia, or low levels of red blood cells, may result. Certain foods, including dairy products, fatty foods, high-fiber foods, or highly seasoned foods, may worsen symptoms of diarrhea because they are more difficult than most foods to digest.

Other symptoms: In addition, Crohn's disease may also cause open sores in the intestines (called intestinal ulcers), fever, fatigue, arthritis, eye inflammation, skin disorders, and inflammation of the liver or bile ducts.

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Symptoms of Crohn’s include abdominal pain, fever, prolonged diarrhea, loss of appetite, weight loss, abdominal mass, fatigue, and gastrointestinal bleeding. Your physician can make a diagnosis through a physical exam. Additional tests, like an endoscopy, colonoscopy or sigmoidoscopy, small bowel follow-through, barium enema, upper GI series, capsule endoscopy (pill cam) or stool culture, may also be necessary.

The main symptoms of Crohn's disease include:

• Belly pain. The pain often is described as cramping and intermittent, and the belly may be sore when touched. Belly pain may turn to a dull, constant ache as the condition gets worse.
• Diarrhea. Some people may have diarrhea 10 to 20 times a day. They may wake up at night and need to go to the bathroom. Crohn's disease may cause blood in stools, but not always.
• Loss of appetite.
• Fever. In severe cases, fever or other symptoms that affect the entire body may develop. A high fever may mean that you have an infection, such as an abscess.
• Weight loss. Ongoing symptoms, such as diarrhea, can lead to weight loss.
• Too few red blood cells (anemia). Some people with Crohn's disease develop anemia because of low iron levels caused by bloody stools or the intestinal inflammation itself.
• Small tears in the anus (anal fissures) that may go away, but come back again.

Because Crohn's disease involves the immune system, you also may have symptoms outside the digestive tract. These may include joint pain, eye problems, a skin rash or liver disease.

Other conditions with symptoms similar to Crohn's disease include diverticulitis and ulcerative colitis.