Where to get free UK support for gut symptoms

Start with Guts UK. Its helpline covers any digestive symptom or condition, IBS included, on 0300 102 4887, Monday to Friday, 10am to 2pm, excluding bank holidays. Coeliac disease, Crohn’s and colitis have their own charities and helplines. None of them can diagnose you, but all of them can help you ask better questions.

I opened every one of these on 1 October 2026 and wrote down what they say they do, because a helpline that promises the wrong thing wastes a phone call you had to work up to.

What can the Guts UK helpline help with?

Making sense of a symptom and getting ready to talk to your GP. The team can help you understand a digestive condition or symptom, work out what questions to ask a healthcare professional or what to say to a GP, find other services that might help, and give you publicly available information about the options for a condition.

It’s as useful to know what it won’t do. The helpline can’t tell you what you should or shouldn’t do, offer ongoing support, diagnose a condition, recommend what to take or do, or recommend an individual practitioner. Urgent health matters go to the NHS, your GP or urgent care.

If the line is busy or closed you can ring and ask for a call back, or fill in the online form. The team aims to reply to forms within 10 working days, and says it’s a small team, so that can stretch at busy times.

Three other things from Guts UK are worth having:

• A Can’t Wait card. A free wallet card for anyone in the UK with a diagnosed digestive condition, to show when you need a toilet urgently. It doesn’t guarantee access, but it can help.
• Webinars. A series on individual conditions, IBS among them, with healthcare professionals and people who live with the condition, to watch on demand on its YouTube channel.
• Plain information pages on more than 40 digestive conditions and symptoms.

What happened to the IBS Network?

You’ll still see the IBS Network recommended in older articles, leaflets and even some NHS hospital pages. Don’t follow those links.

The Charity Commission register lists the IBS Network (charity number 1173208) as a removed charity, removed on 29 October 2025 with administrative dissolution under consideration. When I opened its old web address on 1 October 2026, it showed an unrelated gambling page, not the charity. Please don’t enter any details there.

Its large IBS community on the HealthUnlocked forum site is still running, but a pinned message says the IBS Network will no longer be moderating it. Forums can be a comfort, but an unmoderated forum is a place to feel less alone, not a place to take medical advice from.

Where can I get help with coeliac disease?

Coeliac UK, on 0333 332 2033, Monday to Friday, 10am to 4pm. It says it has dietitians and other expert advisers on hand, and you can email instead.

Its free online self assessment takes about two minutes and tells you whether you or your child should be tested for coeliac disease. Testing itself is arranged by your GP, and you need gluten in your diet when the blood test is done, so don’t cut it out first. Coeliac UK also runs a membership, which is where its product search, recipes and printed guides sit.

Where can I get help with Crohn’s or colitis?

Crohn’s and Colitis UK, on 0300 222 5700, or by live chat, Monday to Friday, 10am to 3pm, except English bank holidays. You can email helpline@crohnsandcolitis.org.uk at any time, and it aims to reply within three working days. Interpreters are available on the phone line.

The team is clear that it isn’t medically trained, and that individual medical advice is for your GP or IBD team. What it offers is information, someone to talk to about living with the condition, and connections: around 50 local networks, online meetups, and a map to find your nearest hospital with specialist IBD nurses.

What free NHS support is there besides your GP?

Some of it you can reach without an appointment:

• NHS talking therapies. You can refer yourself, without a GP referral, for therapies like CBT for stress, anxiety and depression. If stress or anxiety sets off your gut, that’s a fair reason to ask.
• NHS dietitian videos. The Patient Webinars series on IBS diet is made by specialist NHS dietitians and is open to anyone online. Can I get the low FODMAP diet on the NHS explains how it fits with a referral.
• Your pharmacist, for everyday gut symptoms, and NHS 111 when you need help today. Which one to use sets out the difference.

What can’t a helpline do?

Assess you. A helpline can explain, reassure and prepare you, but it can’t examine you or order a test. These symptoms need a GP, NHS 111 or 999, in the NHS’s words.

Ask for an urgent GP appointment or get help from NHS 111 if: “you have lost a lot of weight for no reason”, “you’re bleeding from your bottom or have bloody diarrhoea”, or “you find a hard lump or swelling in your tummy”.

Call 999 or go to A&E if: “a stomach ache came on very suddenly or is severe”, “you’re vomiting blood or your vomit looks like ground coffee”, or “you cannot poo or fart”.

Getting ready for the call

When you do ring a helpline or book a GP, dated notes make the conversation shorter and better. The free log below is built for that, and so is a seven day symptom log your GP will read. If you’re not sure where your bloating fits, the bloating quiz ends on a next step.