Problems with bowel movement

Problems with bowel movements can be accompanied by other complaints such as stomach aches. These can be dull or crampy. Abdominal pain can occur with diarrhea and also with constipation.

Pain may also occur only during the bowel movement itself. This points to hemorrhoids. With some diseases blood can get into the stool.

Blood in the stool should always be clarified by a doctor. Even if one does not usually talk about it, many people suffer from constipation from time to time – about 10-20%. In the vast majority of cases, constipation is not a serious cause.

Often it is due to the diet or one has drunk too little. Constipation can often be easily relieved by simple measures such as exercise, drinking a lot, hot water bottle, etc. Laxatives at the latest will then lead to the desired goal.

In rare cases an ileus, an intestinal obstruction, can also be the cause. With an ileus, the intestine stops working. In this case immediate treatment by a doctor is necessary.

An ileus can occur, for example, after an abdominal operation.Pain during bowel movement is very unpleasant. They can occur in the context of constipation in very hard stools. During the bowel movement, the stool must be pressed very hard and small cracks in the intestinal mucosa can easily develop.

Another widespread cause is haemorrhoids. Hemorrhoids are nodular dilatations of the veins and cavernous bodies at the exit of the intestine. Pain occurs during bowel movement.

In addition, a little blood may be added to the stool. Anal venous thromboses cause burning, stabbing pain. This is a blood clot that forms in a vessel near the anus.

Bowel cancer can also cause pain during bowel movement – especially if it is located at the end of the bowel. If there is mucus in or on the stool, its color and quantity should first be observed and attention paid to accompanying symptoms, since mucus on the stool alone has no disease value. If mucus occurs over a short period of time, the cause is usually harmless, such as a change in food intake or an infectious cause.

However, if the mucus occurs over a longer period of time and is associated with other symptoms such as abdominal pain, fever or nausea, or if it occurs after a trip to, for example, tropical regions, then it should be clarified with a doctor. Causes of mucus in the stool can be food intolerances/allergies such as coeliac disease (gluten intolerance) or lactose and fructose intolerance. Furthermore, mucus in the stool over a longer period of time also occurs in the case of polyps in the intestine or the autoimmune diseases ulcerative colitis or Crohn’s disease.

Mucus in the stool is treated in the course of the therapy of the possibly existing underlying disease. Are you interested in this topic? You can read more detailed information in our next article: Mucilaginous stoolThere are many causes for blood in the stool.

In addition to serious diseases, blood in the stool can also have harmless causes. There are different types of “blood in the stool“. In so-called “hematochecia”, light red deposits are visible on the stool.

As this indicates fresh blood, it is usually assumed that there is bleeding in the lower part of the intestine or existing hemorrhoids. “Melenaena” (= tarry stools), should always be clarified by a physician (see section “Black stools”). If light-colored blood can be seen on or in the stool, it is called “red stool”.

This can be caused by bleeding in the upper sections of the gastrointestinal tract, especially when the intestinal contents pass through the bowel very quickly and the blood is not “digested”, in the sense that “there is no time for it to turn black”. Furthermore, intestinal diseases such as intestinal diverticula or Crohn’s disease and ulcerative colitis can also cause blood in the stool. Blood in the stool can also have “external causes”, such as a bleeding crack in the anus or further anal region.

Before starting a therapy, it is therefore important to find the cause. If blood in the stool is suspected, it is possible to have a “haemoccult test” carried out by a doctor. This test should detect “occult (= hidden) blood”. The “Haemoccult test” is recommended as standard from the age of 50 years annually as a colon cancer screening and can usually be arranged with the family doctor. Alternatively, there is the possibility of having a colonoscopy performed.