Any difficulty with passing stools is termed as constipation by a lay person. You may be suffering from hard stools, a change in the stool frequency, a sense of incomplete evacuation, or a bloating sensation that you believe will get relieved by passage of stools. It is for a specialist to differentiate what the cause and remedy should be.

In case there are alarm signs, such as weight loss, loss of appetite, blood seen in stool, or a black colored stool; these are causes of alarm, and will need immediate attention; as early detection will help cure the issue. The test done in such a case is a colonoscopy, which will reveal the cause.

In case there are no alarm signs, you may be suffering from a slow transit in the large intestine, where the speed will be revealed by a test called the “Colon Transit Time”. However, if the speed is normal, but you have a difficulty in evacuating the stools that has arrived in the rectum in time, this “Fecal Evacuation Disorder” is diagnosed and treated by “Anorectal manometry” as well as “Biofeedback Treatment”.