What Does it Feel Like to Be Constipated?

What does it feel like to be constipated?

Symptoms of constipation include:

• Infrequent bowel movements
• Straining when going to the bathroom
• Hard and/or small feces
• Sense of incomplete evacuation after going to the bathroom
• Lower abdominal discomfort
• Abdominal bloating, occasionally distension
• Anal bleeding or fissures from the trauma caused by hard feces
• Occasionally diarrhea due to obstruction of the colon by hard stool
• Rarely colonic perforation
• Psychological distress and/or obsession with having to go to the bathroom
• Possible aggravation of diverticular disease, hemorrhoids and rectal prolapse

For more information, read our full medical article about constipation.