Causes of Constipation in Women

Women are more prone to be constipated than men due to many reasons, and a variety of factors contribute to this problem. 20 percent of women have known to suffer from constipation at various points of their lives.

What causes constipation in women?

1. Lack of fiber: Not having fiber in the diet is one of the biggest reasons for constipation in women. If there is not much fiber in the diet, the stool tends to become more solid and can be difficult to pass. The stool becomes so hard that it can become quite a task to pass them, leading to constipation.

2. Retaining stool as a social behavior: Women are three times more likely to retain their stool due to perceived embarrassment in going to the toilet in a public or social setting. They also tend to sacrifice doing it in the public toilets because they believe that this can lead to hygiene issues to their private parts. They are socially conditioned to hold it till they reach the privacy of their homes. But then, this idea of postponing the bowel movement can lead accumulation of stool, leading to a high degree of constipation in women.


3. Fad diet: It has been observed that women, specially the younger lot are more prone to eat fast food, junk food that can clog the bowels and cause constipation. Also women who are charmed by fad diets only to know that they are not really nutritional, end up forsaking some of the important nutrients that give roughage to their system, leading to constipation in women.

4. Pregnancy: Women are more flatulent and constipated during pregnancy. This is due to changes in the hormones in her body, making her large intestine function differently compared to the way it was before pregnancy. There is a change in the nutrition (she has to eat more, lack of physical activity and of course, hormonal changes that cause constipation in pregnant women.

5. Menopause: Hormonal changes in menopause can also cause constipation. Lack of physical activity where a woman is more focused on taking it easy can cause difficulty in passing bowel movement

6. Laxative use: Women are more prone to take laxatives to stimulate bowel movement. This so-called easy solution can backfire because the bowels can become weaker. Also there are more cases of women taking laxatives as a symptom of eating disorder.

7. Stress, anxiety and depression: All these worrying conditions can also cause sluggish bowel movements. Due to a worrying incident, a woman is not able to eat properly, digest food well and also pass motions properly

8. Stressful lifestyle: The stressful life style of a woman has made her so busy that she has to juggle work with managing a home. This leaves little time for her to sit on the toilet properly for a complete bowel movement, because her mind is busy with other chores to attend to.

9. Medications : Medications like antidepressants, iron pill, pain killing medications, antacids that contain calcium and iron can also cause constipation in women

10. Diseases: Diseases like irritable bowel syndrome, colon cancer, hemorrhoids, hypothyroidism, multiple sclerosis, Parkinson’s Disease and colon cancer can also cause constipation in women.

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