QUOTE : The typical medical interpretation of microscopic colitis does not include the possibility of constipation as a symptom, nor alternating diarrhea and constipation, and yet many MC patients have those symptoms rather than chronic diarrhea. ...Unless a patient comes to a gastroenterologist complaining of watery diarrhea, MC will probably be completely off the doctor's radar. Few colonoscopies are done to investigate cases of constipation, and without a colonoscopy or sigmoidoscopy plus biopsies, diagnosis of MC is impossible. In cases such as these, the default diagnosis will almost surely be irritable bowel syndrome (IBS), so the patient will be very unlikely to receive any treatment that is effective at relieving the inflammation that's causing the symptoms.