Constipation

Constipation Symptoms

Joseph Bennington-Castro
By Medically Reviewed by 
Reviewed:
Medically Reviewed

Constipation often involves dry stool that's hard to pass and the feeling that you're unable to completely empty your bowels.

Constipation, which develops when digested food spends too much time in the colon, can result from a wide range of factors.

Common causes of constipation include:

Whatever the cause, constipation is often associated with the same common signs and symptoms.

Signs and Symptoms

There's no real "right" number of bowel movements you should have in a day or week — it's different for each person.

Having a bowel moment anywhere from three times a week to three times a day is generally considered within the healthy range.

Most commonly, though, constipation is said to occur when you have fewer than three bowel movements in a week.

Other signs and symptoms of constipation include:

  • Having lumpy, hard, dry stool that's difficult to pass
  • Straining to pass stool
  • Feeling like you still need to go after you have a bowel movement (like you haven't fully emptied your bowels)
  • Feeling like there's a blockage in the intestines or rectum
  • Pain or bloating in the abdomen
  • Reduced appetite
  • Sluggishness or lethargy

Contrary to common belief, the body does not absorb waste that is trapped, which would cause significant danger to your overall health.

In fact, constipation is more often just bothersome rather than serious.

But chronic (long-term) constipation can lead to some complications, including hemorrhoids, tears in the skin around the anus (anal fissures), and rectal prolapse (a condition in which part of the rectum sticks out of the anus).

Constipation and Back Pain

It's not unusual for constipation and back pain to occur together.

In some cases, constipation may indirectly result from back pain. That is, you can become constipated after taking certain pain medications, particularly drugs such as opiates.

In other cases, constipation and back pain may both be symptoms of another health issue.

For instance, irritable bowel syndrome can cause both constipation and backaches, even though the two symptoms may not be directly related.

Back pain can also develop from fecal impaction, another complication of chronic constipation.

This condition occurs when a large chunk of dry, hard stool gets trapped in the rectum and you're unable to push it out.

Fecal impaction is especially common if you're constipated for a long time and are taking a lot of laxatives.

Your body becomes accustomed to the medication and "forgets" how to normally pass stool once you stop taking the laxatives.

If you have a fecal impaction, the hardened stool may press on the sacral nerves of the lower back, resulting in back pain.

This back pain will remain until its source — the impaction — is removed through a procedure that usually involves a doctor manually reaching into the rectum to break up the hardened stool.

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