Results

Cause of your symptoms

Your change in bowel habit may be related to changes in your life style and diet.

Advice

Try the treatments outlined below for four weeks.

Treatments

Eat more roughage and if necessary take a laxative. A pharmacist could advise on suitable treatments.

What now?

If you get better nothing else needs to be done. However, if your constipation persists for four more weeks or recurs after stopping treatment, see your GP.

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You are over 50 years old and have a change in bowel habit to decreased frequency and harder drier stools but no abdominal pain or rectal bleeding.

Additional information if you see your GP

Your GP will probably examine your tummy and back passage and do a blood test and if these are normal you are at low risk of having serious bowel disease and it would be reasonable to advise a further period of treat, watch and wait. However, if your symptoms do not settle completely you are likely to be referred to a routine hospital clinic for further investigations and advice on how to manage your constipation.
In healthy patients aged 50-70 years old, not having previous colonic investigations, a single flexible sigmoidoscopy has the added benefit of detecting incidental significant polyps which if removed may prevent a bowel cancer developing in the future; ‘opportunistic screening'.