Flat stools at age 28

Digestive health
1

Hello!

I am super worried. I am 28 years old and have always struggled with my weight. I had lost quite a bit through eating vegan only to put it back on when I stopped being vegan about two years ago.

In January I decided to go vegan again after eating a terrible diet (fried foods, pizza, bagels, etc). I was healthy- consuming a diet rich in fruits and veggies and beans and nuts- but then I went on vacation and it threw me off. I was also working overtime for a while which left me with little time and motivation to meal prep and so I slipped to old habits. However, I have been back to eating high fiber fresh produce and plant based proteins and fats for the past month.

Though I can't precisely pinpoint when my symptoms began, I know it was several months ago (February of this year?). I noticed one day my stool was quite wide but flat- almost paper thin. I thought this was odd and asked my mother what that meant. She is a nurse. She replied "it could mean there is obstruction." When I proceeded to tell her I was asking about myself and when I started to panic she wrote it off saying that BMs can come in different shapes and consistencies depending on diet. She said I am too young for colon cancer (which is what I jumped to after some quick research) and have no family history of it.

I noticed flat stool from then on after almost every BM. Sometimes it would be long and flat, sometimes small little flat pieces. I also occasionally have long and thin stools. On occasion I would have a normal BM. When I was eating really healthy, high fiber, it would be mostly unformed. The color varies and I think I noticed it's mostly dependent on diet- when I eat more smoothies and higher fiber it's darker brown and looser. I also often notice undigested foods in it. When I eat lower fiber it's more firm and light in color.

Most mornings I have a BM upon waking then typically again after I eat. However, there are days when I will be on the toilet all morning because I have to go again. This doesn't ever happen beyond the AM. Though on these days I can go 5-6 times in the AM alone and then another few times during the day/night. I attributed this to adjusting to high fiber diet as over the past month I have been eating primarily veggies and fruits during the day. However the morning flare ups seem random. I was thinking of tracking my food more precisely and noting when they happen to look for potential patterns.

I do not have blood. I maybe saw light red blood on the toilet paper 2x in the past several months. I also do not think I am bloated.

I do occasionally have a hard time pushing it out and am left feeling like I have an incomplete BM and it causes mild cramps in lower abdomen. However I rarely have pain or cramps otherwise. I've also noticed more flatulence but not to the point where I cannot control it and it causes me public embarrassment, ha.

About a month ago, I had intense sharp pain on my anus to the point that moving and walking felt almost impossible. I made an appt with a GI doctor but they couldn't get me in for 2 months. My primary doctor did not see me but said it was likely hemmerhoids and would go away on its own. It felt like a soft lump and I was in so much pain I had my mother look at it. She told me it was a cyst with certainty. I have gotten cysts in strange places before but because of my other symptoms I panicked for a few days. However after a BM I wiped and it burst- sorry for the image! there was a lot of blood and I did my best to clean it and I put a big hospital bandage over the area (it did not cover my anus. The cyst was located beside it- not coming out of the anus). The pain was immediately gone- so I assume it is not related but worth a mention.

I have no history of colon cancer but after reading online for months and panicking, I am worried that doesn't matter. The only risk factor I have is being overweight, which I have been actively working on losing weight.

Does anyone have any thoughts? I am unable to sleep because I'm so anxious and I still have 3.5 weeks before my GI appointment and another week before I meet with my primary care doctor for a physical where I will tell him my symptoms.

Thank you!

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2

Your mum is right.  Stools come in all shapes and sizes and can be affected by diet and stress. Don't google your symptoms; it will make your symptoms and panic worse.  You may have IBS.  See what your doctor says.

3

I'm the same age as you and have flat stools too. They come out in pieces most of the time and give me incomplete evacuation. I had a colonoscopy which didn't find anything wrong. They also inserted a pressure sensitive catheter during the procedure and monitored my parastalsis action afterwards (including during a meal) which they found was abnormal, so I was given the diagnosis of IBS. I seriously doubt you have cancer, don't worry about that until you're older wink

4

Firstly, calm down. Secondly, if you read your post you have answered your own qyestion. Your stools are changing depending on how much fibre you eat, which is completely normal. A vegan diet is often very high in fibre due to all the fruit veggies beans etc. Soluble fibre makes stools soft, hence sometimes yours are a bit mushy. Insoluble fibre makes them firmer, but too much of this causes constipation if you do not consume enough fluid.

You really have nothing to worry about.

The cyst is unrelated and could easily have been an infected hair follicle too. If you get another one make sure you keep it really clean- get some of those moist toilet wipes.

5

Hi folks any updates here? I'm the same age and having a similar issue. Would love to know how everything turned out!

6

Don't be so complacent or dismissive about the possibility of colon cancer at age 28

It's happening more and more to the young, we recently lost a young man to colon cancer he was 28 when he was diagnosed and he died when he was 32!

7

Ive been suffering from the same symptoms for 2 years now. Bloating, constipation and a raised cholesterol level. The doc gave me mebeverine an antispasmodic and psyllium supplements in addition to prozac. This did to me a little good but I cant take wheat dextrin or too many veggies since they jist kind of get stuck in there. The stool is pasty and informed and on good days its pellets and flat stools. What is the way to get out of this and what are the remedies or cures effective which anyone else is following ?

8

Try fruit such ss oranges, grapes or prune juice if you are constipated.  Look at the Fodmap diet.

9

Did you ever get any answers?

Have you followed up and seen your GI doctor?

You're not alone I do the exact same thing and I can't get any answers knife scene GI doctors.

If you happen to see my response please contact me.

Thanks

10

This might come a little late but for all those who may drop in in the future: never google your symptoms, it always "leads to cancer". This will be long but for the worriers here it will be worth the time.

This is my story:

1-3 years ago, specs of blood on toilet paper (occasionally)

2 years ago stool became harder to pass, had some neurological symptoms that couldnt be explained (seemed that no matter how hard I pushed the anus didnt open like it used to)..at the time had investigated the neurological problems (wont bore you with them), turned out to be nothing.

1 year ago had massive anal bleeding with large hard to pass stools, gp sent to proctologist who saw "a very small fissure" (maybe it was small, but it bled like a waterfall after passing stool). Made sense, tried some stuff to make it go away, but it didnt. In fact, i had/have at least 5 fissures that seemed to come and go. For the sake of those who ruled them out on pain - small fissures can bleed like hell without hurting. Oh, and the "bright blood vs dark blood" is BS. My fissures bled both dark crimson and bright, depending on the amount of blood and location in the anus. Most times I managed to find the fissure by tracing the source of blood with the tp. 

8 months ago started getting flat stools..usually started out regular and became flat. This was SCARY s**t. dark blood + flat stool always leads to cancer on the web..but that wasnt it.

3 months ago came the creme de la creme,  started getting pain in mid lower abdomen..seemed like this pressure/stuck feeling.If you look up any medical dictionary (the web not so much but sometimes) you will learn that apparently colon cancer causes lower abdominal pain (usually due to partial blockage..). Be advised though, that this is extremely severe pain that doesnt usually go away so easily. After a month or two I connected it to gas, still though, it hurt like hell and often not only during the day (again for the "IBS cant come at night" people..it can).

1 month ago I had had it. Got a gastro appointment and a colonoscopy. I was dreaded of the sedation and asked to have it without (that is a fear I will take care of another time). Luckily he said yes. It was yesterday. totally bearable, not as much pain as doctors/nurses or some people claim it is (at least, for me). 

Bottom line - Totally clear. I have nothing in my large colon. For the past year I was convinced I had cancer and constantly obsessed about my stool..It took most of my time and attention and made me feel like crap. 

Most of you wont have anything, but get checked, mostly to stop obsessing. just wanted you all to know that even the "warning signs" can and usually do turn out to be nothing. 

11

OH and almost forgot - perfect flat stool is not likely to be from an obstruction in my opinion. I have investigated my stools thoroughly for the past year and I got these very very wide yet flat stools as well, usually feeling enormous pressure when having them without the feeling that the anus is actively opening  This is the result of one of the sphincters not opening properly  (so the anus stays flat and the stool pushes through it getting that shape). I dont know what stool passing an obstruction looks like (depends on location), but I do know that these kinds of stools are common when the anus isnt functioning properly, as had happened with me (I have encountered quite a bit of stories about this in the past, as well).

12

This is interesting to read.

I've had this lower left discomfort for a couple of months now. Not a pain just a bit of an annoyance I guess that never really changes.

When this started I became more aware of my stools (before this I was a typical normal human being who went to toilet.. Wiped... Flushed and left) now im convinced every time I go I'm going to find a big streak of something down the side like it's been forced passed something (I'm expecting blood but who knows) well something that's started to Bug me is my stools float, pretty much all the time. I honestly can't remember checking in the past to see if they did or not but now I'm aware of it.. Obviously this has led me to thinking "is this related" so with my floating stool and frantic checking it occured to me I could just flick the stool round with the brush to check for this big streak of blood I'm going to find any day now. They are flat. Pretty much all of the time they are a bit flat. I never really noticed a couple of weeks back, I was happy to inspect the top of the stool then flush but if you spin it round they are like squished.. Sausages. Maybe 1.5" wide but a bit under an inch thick. I don't know if this is related to the lingering lump on my anus from a previous hemorrhoid but it doesnt half worry you as your slowly filling in the check list for bowel cancer.. (though I still don't think I've seen any blood)

Today was the first time I actually acknowledged it so then spent the rest of the day googling it like mad.

I'm currently moving into 3 months of feeling like crap and I'm now developing some additional aches and pains which may be upper gi related, ibs related or just stress/anxiety.

I have an appointment with a specialist but it's not till May.. I'm not sure i can last that long! It's completely life ruining.

So are your symptoms improved /gone now you've had it confirmed it's Ibs and your not dying?

13

Hello Rose,

I’m going through aome thing very similar and your inputs are highly appreciated here.. please let me know what you found out on your appointmnet.. thanks a lot

14

I'm 25 and I've been having flat stools in 99,9% of my BMs for a while, which added to a recent (now stopped) unexplained weight loss of around 6kg in 4 months, I came to google and freaked out about the worst! I did all the possible tests and everything came out fine, so the only examination left to take was a colonoscopy. I'm currently living in Poland and luckily doctors here don't want to take any chances and they prescribe you with the adequate tests even if they admit themselves they think they might not be necessary, so I was prescribed to do a colonoscopy while the doctor told me she wasn't very worried about my symptoms since all the other tests came back fine. I went back home calmer but every BM I was having was coming flat, which my anxiety lead me to think there might be some mass shaping it like that. After some weeks of constant flat stools, I decided to make an appointment for a colonoscopy.

It's now the morning after my colonoscopy and as my doctor had predicted, there is no kind of mass that could be shaping my stool or making me lose any weight, the answer: irritable bowel syndrome. It didn´t come 100% clean anyway as I had a very small polyp removed, but it was so deep in the bowels that it had no way to affect the structure of my stools.

Something I'd like to add is that contrary to the way it's done in the US, most of colonoscopies in Europe are done without anesthesia, so I have to admit I was freaked out, especially after my parents told me how horrible it was to do it without anesthesia that now they always pay for it. But I was like, well, most of them are done without it here so it can't be that bad, and it wasn't!! I wasn't given any kind of sedation, only some local anesthesia gel to the anus. Did it hurt? Yes, but for max 1 minute. Once the tube goes beyond the proximity to the anus, I honestly didn't feel anything, I just felt constant painless friction through the rectum and that was it. However, as I previously said, it did hurt for around a minute, which was when the surgeon reached one of the bowels curves that in my case is a little more bent than normal, so it was a short time of hell in which I swore more than I have ever done so in my life, but 10 seconds after the surgeon left that part, it had faded away! The rest of the test was painless, just 'funnily uncomfortable'. 

Conclusion: The mind can trick us with very scary things that we can easily think they are real, such as an obvious flat or ribbon shape of stools, real weight loss or any other symptoms, but it is essential to remain calm at least until you get any test results. For those with similar symptoms with no trace of blood, any pain or other tests coming out fine, I don't think it is a reason to worry, but if you're as anxious as I am about health, doing a colonoscopy is really not that big of a deal, says somebody who has done it without any sedation at all! I'm glad that I did it like this because I could ask the doctor to re-check parts of my bowel that looked weird to me, just so I wouldn't leave thinking maybe he didn't check that well. 

I honestly don't know how the health insurance works in the US and if it's possible for the average person to have a colonoscopy for free or for a low price, but if it really worries you that much, just go for it, like in my case, you could even find other things that you weren't looking for and having them treated!  But again, I know it's even hard for me, but try not to worry until you have the results of the test, because I have panicked about so many different diseases in my life that I never had that I have wasted a lot of time and ruined nice moments.

15

Stools really do come in all shapes and sizes and also consistency.    Your mum is right about this. Diet change can influence this.  Try the food diary and do not worry!  Do not google symptoms; this willl cause anxiety.  There is a condition called IBS which causes the symptoms you describe,  Flat stools is one of them.  Phone your doctor and explain your worries and ask for a cancellation appointment.  Say you can no longer wait because of your anxiety.

16

HI EVERYONE. i am 27 years old 246lb. i been expriencing blood in stool for 2 years now,my stool is flat shape!!i am very scared i may have colon cANCER

17

Rose tell us what was the result of this? Personally I have flat stools for 2 years

18

As you have noticed yourself, your stools have changed in response to adjusting your diet. There seems to be a pattern here. Diet change does cause stool changes. I would stick to one type of diet to let your bowel get used to it.Try not to strain when passing stools because that can cause haemorrhoids which you have experienced. I think you are overthinking and stressing too much about your symptoms. Worrying can upset your gut and make symptoms worse. Don't google symptoms; that also causes panic. Stools do come in all shapes, sizes and consistencies.

19

hi im rob im 33 i to have flat stool in december i was passing lots of blood for a few day but it went away ive been experiencing stomach pain for yrs now i had a colonoscopy about 5 or 6 yrs ago and they said that i was fine it was just ibs but that my colon was dirty then over the last couple yrs the flat stool started my doctor kept telling me it was nothing so i did wrry about it then the blood happend so i started researching and colon cancer kept coming up so ive started to panic when i mention it to my dr he said it cant be cause im to young when i ask jim what else it could be he saids i dont know now im wrried it is colon cancer and that i could have gotton this looked at this soonerand that my dr could have cost me my life i have a colonoscpy book for next week and no one takes me serious they just keep saying im to young even though i know a few young pple to have either polyps they had removed or bowel cancer im really scared my mother has server stomach problem but said shes never had polyps or cancer but im not sure do to the fact shes always been a compulsive liarer

20

Your doctor is right! colon cancer is rare when you are young. You have said you know 'a few' young people with polyps or bowel cancer. The word 'few' indicates that these incidences are rare . Don't listen to scare stories or google symptoms because it will cause you to panic.Google only gives general information and doesn't take account of individual,experiences. Only listen to your doctor who is taking you seriously by trying to reassure you and has booked you in for a colonoscopy. The fact that your doctor is doing both these things means that he is listening to your concerns. If he were fobbing you off, he would not be sending you for further investigations . Flat stools and bleeding can happen with IBS if you have haemorrhoids or fissures. The blood tends to be bright red.Abdominal pain is a major symptom of IBS.