SIBO Retesting: Your Methane or Hydrogen Gas Levels Have Gone Up - Here’s Why That Might Be a Good Sign

So when I am working with endo clients on their SIBO, I always start the discussions not by diving into the protocol options, but actually preparing my clients to go through the SIBO protocols by setting expectations and giving some cautionary warnings.

This is so important because SIBO is not easy to treat, but also if you misunderstand your test results as you go through the protocol, you may give up or change protocols, when in fact you should actually keep going or the, you know, the protocol is absolutely fine and you don't need to change a thing.

Often what happens is that I have people come to me and they tell me that they've tried one or two rounds of herbs and their levels went up, or they tried antibiotics and only one gas came down whilst the other one went up, or, you know, all of these odd patterns that they've assumed means something's not working.

So today, I want to give you a very brief insight into some of the gas patterns you can expect to see when you're going through SIBO treatment, so that if you're doing this on your own or you're doing it with the help of your doctor, but perhaps they're not as versed in SIBO as you'd like, I know I have a couple of people who have worked with their GPs who are more than happy to help, but you know, they've said, "Look, I'm not an expert, but I'll help," so that if you're doing this on your own or, or you're doing it with a GP, you know what to do when you see these patterns.

Now, there are other patterns and issues that we can come up against during this time, but these are the most common ones I see, and I will say they don't occur with everyone.

But I see them fairly often, and if you don't see these patterns, it doesn't mean you're doing anything wrong, so please don't panic about that.

So before we get into the patterns, let's quickly talk about retesting.

Retesting is recommended after each round of treatment ideally, and that's to observe how effective the last treatment was and whether more treatments are needed because, as we know, SIBO is tough to treat.

It normally takes a couple of rounds to shift, if not more.

Now, Dr. Siebecker, my tutor and lead in SIBO doctor, advises retesting days two to six after a treatment.

So you've finished a treatment, and then day two after treatment you would do a retest.

And we do this so close to the treatment because backsliding, otherwise known as regrowth of SIBO, occurs at about two weeks, so you want to see what your levels are before that happens.

Now, on a lab test, it will advise in the instructions not to test after antibiotics or antimicrobials for two weeks to one month.

That is true for diagnostic testing because you don't want to have been on a round of antibiotics for, let's say you had a tooth infection, and then you're like, "Now I'm gonna retest for SIBO," because it could give falsely low levels.

Um, so for a diagnostic test, fine, give it a month, but when you're retesting, you want to do it close after treatment to observe the changes in SIBO levels and to see how effective that treatment r- was.

Now, if you can't afford retesting after every round, please don't worry.

I tend to aim for retesting after three rounds if that's the case.

Like, if I've got a client who can't afford to retest after each round, then we will do after every three rounds, as that's the average minimum number of rounds we tend to see required to clear SIBO, or we retest when symptoms have improved.

And this is taught to us in our SIBO Pro certification with Dr. Siebecker, so in what I'm trained in.

So I don't think there are studies saying that, you know, a minimum of three rounds is required for SIBO, but this is just what she's seen after working with, like, thousands of patients.