Table 1.

Systematic review search strategy

Group	Search Terms	Significance of Grouping
1	MEDLINE	Targeted Bibliographic Database
2	Irritable bowel syndrome [MeSH Terms] OR irritable bowel OR gastrointestinal transit [MeSH Terms] OR intestinal transit OR functional gastrointestinal disorder* OR gastrointestinal motility [MeSH Terms] OR visceral hyperalgesia OR functional colonic diseases OR colonic diseases OR gastrointestinal diseases OR gastrointestinal transit OR intestinal pseudo-obstruction OR dyspepsia Field: title/ abstract	Targeted Topic Focus
3	Gender OR menstrual cycle [MeSH Terms] OR estrogen* OR progesterone [MeSH Terms] OR menstruation [MeSH Terms] OR luteal phase [MeSH Terms] OR oral contraceptives [MeSH Terms] OR testosterone [MeSH Terms] OR sex characteristics [MeSH Terms] OR sex hormones OR gonadal steroid hormones OR estradiol congeners OR contraceptive agents OR contraceptives, oral, hormonal [MeSH Terms] OR contraceptives, oral, sequential [MeSH Terms] OR contraceptives, oral [MeSH Terms] OR menopause Field: text word	Targeted Content Keywords
4	Review OR letter OR news OR editorial Field: Publication Type NOT Cat OR mouse OR rat OR feline OR porcine OR canine OR dog OR bovine OR cow OR horse Field: text word	Excluded study types and content

The four search groups were combined as follows: (1 AND 2 AND 3 NOT 4).

MeSH=medical subject heading. Asterisk (*) indicates keyword truncation