Asperger's and abdominal pain?

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Is there any relationship between Asperger's syndrome and abdominal pain?

Specifically, I am mid-forties and diagnosed with Asperger's syndrome. I get pain in my right side, below the ribs, that can last days. This has happened since teenage. I have had plenty of tests that have all shown no cause for pain, except for calling it irritable bowel syndrome.

Sometimes I think that the pain symptoms are all in the mind. Sometimes I wonder if there is a real, as-yet undiagnosed cause. Recently I have begun to wonder if there is any link to Asperger's syndrome, and specifically if there is some cultural element to describing feelings of unwellness - in other words, that I experience the same unwellness as others but have not learned the accepted method of describing it. (An example of this is the recent diagnosis of "abdominal migraine" in children who have not learned to describe their symptoms the "right" way).

There is a correlation with gastrointestinal issues.

I have pains but they are related to feminine issues. I hate the term IBS cause I feel like docs just throw it out there when they have absolutely no clue what's going on.

I have, in the past, had severe abdominal pain but it did not last for days, as you describe. Twenty minutes at the most, I believe. I've not had it in the last two years. I don't really have "issues" as such though, it's too infrequent to call it a problem.

A lot of ASD folks seem to have gastrointestinal issues. You hear a lot about gluten allergies, GFCF diets, etc.

I've had problems most of my life, which got rather serious a few months ago. The doctors thought it was either celiac or an inflammatory bowel disease, but the tests were negative and through my own food/symptom chart I found out I actually have a serious nightshade allergy (potatoes, tomatoes, peppers, eggplant).

I could feel food every step of the way through my system - especially pain right below my ribcage like you described (as the food burned its way through my duodenum). It would be worth keeping a food diary and keeping track of when the pain develops, because there are food allergies that there isn't really any way of testing for.

Aspies tend to have psychological problems like anxiety or stress or depression, all of which can cause abdominal pain. I get abdominal pain from my anxiety, but I didn't use to when I was a child and didn't have this anxiety problem.
I also wonder if we notice these things more than NTs - we're more aware of some aspects of our physiology, perhaps.

I get pain very low down in my abdomen, on the left side only. I'm not sure that's due to my anxiety. I don't know what causes that. A lot of things aren't understood by medicine - perhaps we're more prone to some of them. Interestingly, a very stupid GP also tried to call this IBS even though I didn't get diarrhoea or constipation which define IBS along with pain, and I've never heard of IBS pain being to one side only.

Likewise but in my case the pain I used to experience had nothing to do with any gastrointestinal problems I could have (though I did have them as a child as well)

In my preteens I fell on my stomach once. The next morning when I woke up, I felt a sharp pain in the right lower abdominal lobe if I am allowed to describe the sore place of my body so. I attributed this ailment of mine to my fall the previous day. The pain went away soon only to come back to me over the next years with the frequency of maybe 5-6 times a year (the last time was last year). It was a bit like the beginnings of appendicitis from what I read on the symptoms Attempts to bend my right leg to my stomach only seemed to make the pain sharper, while when I didn't move, it often stopped hurting. The pain typically wore off after maybe an hour or so. Do you think it might have had any connections with that fall from before all those years and that it may have something to do with my appendix?

I get "morning sickness"- nausea and abdominal pain about 1 hour or so after I wake up, almost every single day, my whole life. On some weeks it can be extremely discomforting, and sometimes it's barely noticeable.

I have pain occasionally in several other places too, none have killed me yet. It's the way my body works.

Would be interesting to see if there is a correlation. When i was about 11 years old, i had an appendectomy and my dad's side of the family is known for having digestion issues (ironic given the original last name was Gass ) and there will be some days which i get a rather painful cramping after eating. It just dawned on me that a lot of us may have random spasms/twitches from either medication or from the condition and that could be a reason.

In my case, a lot of circumstantial evidence points that way. My father died decades before AS was a diagnosis, but almost certainly had it. He had IBS-like problems all his life. I seem to have inherited his "touchy guts" plus some vaso-vagal issues (in my case, bowel sensations give me funny heart rhythms). Right now I have a medical issue requiring surgery and guess what--I'm back to touchy guts due to the stress. Hopefully it will resolve after the surgery.

I have never been able to identify any true allergy issues. I have intolerances (lactose and large quantities of onions/garlic), but otherwise screwing with my diet just makes me miserable and feel deprived, although it is worth a try if you have never done it before. For me the connection with stress is a slam-dunk. There have been studies both connecting gastrointestinal problems to ASDs and refuting that connection. This confusion is probably because GI problems are so widespread in the population generally, ASD or not, and a popular response to stress. I guess the conclusion is that we just have a lot of company.

Over the past couple of years I've had issues with my stomach. However, most of it is explainable. A lot of it occured when I was living in the same house as my niece and nephew, and I contracted rotovirus from them multiple times. A lot of my other stomach problems have been psychosomatic or anxiety-induced.

Many of us have IBS, gluten issues, lactose issues etc etc. Show me an aspie who doesn't have some kind of food or gastro problem.

I noticed someone mentioned a sensitivity to garlic, I've got the same problem, I can eat it in small doses but it has to be THOROUGHLY cooked, otherwise I get really bad guts the next day. Other than that, I occasionally get really painful lower abdomen spasms which mean a bad case of diarreah(sp?!) is imminent, but that happens maybe once a month, I don't really get gas or random pains anymore, when I was morbidly obese I used to have terrible IBS and would wake in the night with sweats and lots of bloating pain, but since I've lost 1/2 my bodyweight that has resolved itself.

My dad [who I think has Aspergers] has always had occasions where he gets sick for no obvious reason and starts throwing up in the middle of the night, so I know his guts aren't great.

I'm always in pain.