Are you constipated?
There are 2 main categories of constipation – evacuation difficulty and slow colonic transit.
A slow transit is often related to inadequate dietary fibre and fluid, lack of exercise and repeatedly ignoring the need to have a bowel movement. Evacuation problems are generally related to hard stools and/or a poor evacuation technique (failure to relax the anus and pelvic floor because of posture, pain or muscle weakness). The two are often related and occur at the same time, one often exacerbating the other. There may also be other factors which will contribute, such as medications and other diseases, or lack of toilet access and carer availability for people with disabilities.
Constipation is essentially when your bowel motions are hard and difficult to pass, although the term can have slightly different meanings for different people. Being constipated generally refers to having difficulty with stool evacuation, but for some people it is also associated with time taken, discomfort during stool passage, abdominal pain, bloating possibly with discomfort, a sensation of incomplete evacuation, and even stool consistency and shape.
