# Are Women Really Constipated 3 Times As Often As Men?

**URL:** <https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-women-really-constipated-3-times-as-often-as-men/160839>\
**Category:** Factual Questions\
**Created:** [March 12, 2003, 3:49pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-women-really-constipated-3-times-as-often-as-men/160839 "2003-03-12T15:49:36Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 4\
**Page:** 1

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**Author:** ![Surreal](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/eada6e/32.png) [@Surreal](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Surreal)\
**Post date:** [March 12, 2003, 3:49pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-women-really-constipated-3-times-as-often-as-men/160839/1 "2003-03-12T15:49:36Z")

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When I was very young, back in the early 1980’s, I remember they used to run a commercial for a women’s laxative product- I think it was called correctol (correctal?)- that included the following quote-

“_Women are constipated 3 times as often as men._”

Is this true? How was this ‘fact’ determined??

Thanks.

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**Author:** ![HeyHomie](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/heyhomie/32/207_2.png) [@HeyHomie](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/HeyHomie)\
**Post date:** [March 12, 2003, 11:50pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-women-really-constipated-3-times-as-often-as-men/160839/2 "2003-03-12T23:50:01Z")

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[This article](http://www.dcp.mb.ca/Shoppers_Articles/CONSTIP.html) simply says that women are constipated more often than men, but it doesn’t say to what degree.

[This study](http://www.meridianinstitute.com/eamt/files/robinson/Rob1ch29.htm) has this to say:

> [@](#):
>
> VIII. Sex. - Woman is more liable to constipation than man, because in her the tractus genitalis is violently changed  
> periodically - robbing the tractus intestinalis of its usual quantity of blood (puberty, menstruation, pregnancy, and pelvic  
> disease); (2) woman is less active, more sedentary than man; (3) woman is afflicted with more splanchnoptosia; (4) woman  
> experiences more changes in her visceral circulation (during sexual life) than man (physiology and pathology of genitals)

So it seems that, yes, women are constipated more often than men, but nothing I found on the 'net says to what degree.

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**Author:** ![Bindrah](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/e274bd/32.png) [@Bindrah](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Bindrah)\
**Post date:** [March 13, 2003, 1:59am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-women-really-constipated-3-times-as-often-as-men/160839/3 "2003-03-13T01:59:08Z")

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that would be true between my wife and i. she is always constipated and has to go through so much effort just to go. sad really…my daughter was too as a child…

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**Author:** ![Eve](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/9e8a1a/32.png) [@Eve](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Eve)\
**Post date:** [March 13, 2003, 2:10am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-women-really-constipated-3-times-as-often-as-men/160839/4 "2003-03-13T02:10:30Z")

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Really? No shit.