Constipated patients may feel tightness in their abdomen, or a sharp, cramping pain deep in their gut. They may also feel full all the time—as if they've just eaten a large meal—even when they haven't eaten for several hours. Patients may also feel gassy, but passing gas does not relieve discomfort.
Symptoms may include: Difficult and painful bowel movements. Bowel movements fewer than three times a week. Feeling bloated or uncomfortable.
Constipation can cause pain localized in the lower right abdomen, as well as rebound tenderness. But the constipation starts before the abdominal pain, unlike when you have appendicitis — though constipation can be a symptom of appendicitis.
Gas and constipation
The most common reason for the pain in your side is what you ate or drank. Gas or constipation is usually the biggest false alarm when it comes to abdominal and side pain. Each can cause fairly severe pain, but they usually aren't harmful.
Passing fewer than three stools a week. Having lumpy or hard stools. Straining to have bowel movements. Feeling as though there's a blockage in your rectum that prevents bowel movements.
Constipation is generally not a complaint with bowel perforation; however, chronic constipation and its mimics like appendicitis, diverticulitis, obstructions, and hernias can be risk factors for bowel perforation (26).
The normal length of time between bowel movements varies widely from person to person. Some people have them three times a day. Others have them just a few times a week. Going longer than 3 or more days without one, though, is usually too long.
The severity of constipation varies from person to person. Many people only experience constipation for a short time, but for others, constipation can be a long-term (chronic) condition that causes significant pain and discomfort and affects quality of life. Read more about the symptoms of constipation.
Constipation swells the intestines with retained fecal matter, and this can lead to serious discomfort across the abdomen and back area. This kind of pain is most commonly reported as a dull ache in the lower back, where the backup of stool radiates pressure upon surrounding parts of the body.
Abdominal pain is a normal side effect of constipation, according to the American Family Physician. You feel pain in your abdomen when you're constipated due to the bloating and gas. Trapped pockets of gas can become surprisingly painful, and hardened stool can cause painful pressure.
Constipation is another cause of abdominal pain on the left side of the body. Constipation is usually caused by a lack of exercise, dehydration, or a low-fiber diet.
Tenesmus is the feeling that you need to pass stools, even though your bowels are already empty. It may involve straining, pain, and cramping. Food passes from the stomach into the small intestine.
Generally speaking, you can go about five days without pooping before you run into the risk of serious health issues like fecal impaction, hemorrhoids, or a bowel perforation.
Constipation may present as fewer bowel movements or difficulty passing stools. If someone has gas with constipation, they may experience uncomfortable bloating and pass gas more often.
If you take laxatives too often, you could keep your body from “knowing” when it's time to have a bowel movement. Your body will be less likely to respond to the urge to go, and stool may build up in your colon or rectum.
Other symptoms of lazy bowel syndrome include abdominal bloating and/or pain, nausea, and the inability to control bowel movements, resulting in uncontrollable soiling, poor appetite, bloody stool, and diarrhea.
Diagnosis of constipation requires two or more of the following symptoms, consistently for 90 days: Straining on more than 25% of bowel movements. The feeling that you didn't completely empty your bowels (incomplete evacuation) on more than 25% of bowel movements. Hard stools on more than 25% of bowel movements.
“It would be an emergency if you hadn't had a bowel movement for a prolonged time, and you're also experiencing major bloating or severe abdominal pain,” notes Dr. Zutshi. Slight symptoms will not take you to the emergency room. You should go to the emergency room if your symptoms are severe.
Rectal pressure can mean that there's stool ready to be moved through a bowel movement. But when the sensation continues after you go to the bathroom, you will find it's worth talking to a healthcare provider.