Tired of having your gastrointestinal issues be the center of conversation? Ready to wrangle your symptoms and corral your pain so that they can take a back seat in your life? Worried about sexual intimacy, fertility and pregnancy? Want to feel like you’re in control of your future? Crohn’s disease and ulcerative colitis—known collectively as inflammatory bowel disease, or IBD—can appear at any age, but most often develop in a person’s late teens to early 30s. These chronic conditions can take a physical and emotional toll, but it doesn’t have to be that way. No matter if you’re recently diagnosed, you’ve struggled for several years or you have a child with IBD, Mayo Clinic on Crohn’s Disease & Ulcerative Colitis offers help and hope. This comprehensive, easy-to-understand reference guide can help you chart a path back to health. You’ll learn the science behind IBD and how it strikes, what medications to discuss with your doctor, when to consider surgery, how the disease can affect other parts of your body, and ways to change your lifestyle to manage and live well with your illness. Written by world-class medical specialists, this book is an invaluable resource for anyone wanting trusted information and expert insight.