# Lower abdomen goings-on **URL:** \ **Category:** In My Humble Opinion\ **Created:** [July 14, 2011, 7:19pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/lower-abdomen-goings-on/589045 "2011-07-14T19:19:39Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 14\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![MizQuirk](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/94ad74/32.png) [@MizQuirk](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/MizQuirk)\ **Post date:** [July 14, 2011, 7:19pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/lower-abdomen-goings-on/589045/1 "2011-07-14T19:19:39Z")
If you have what you think are gas pains for several days, would you suspect constipation? And what would you do to help yourself? Could this be caused by stress over a plane trip I need to do next week? ☹ ---
**Author:** ![Ambivalid](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/a5b964/32.png) [@Ambivalid](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ambivalid)\ **Post date:** [July 14, 2011, 7:22pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/lower-abdomen-goings-on/589045/2 "2011-07-14T19:22:44Z")
Well, over the course of those “several days”, have you had a bowel movement? ---
**Author:** ![MizQuirk](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/94ad74/32.png) [@MizQuirk](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/MizQuirk)\ **Post date:** [July 14, 2011, 7:30pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/lower-abdomen-goings-on/589045/3 "2011-07-14T19:30:15Z")
> [@jamiemcgarry](#): > > Well, over the course of those “several days”, have you had a bowel movement? Yes, once on day one and a small bit on day four. ---
**Author:** ![TriPolar](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/tripolar/32/3008_2.png) [@TriPolar](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/TriPolar)\ **Post date:** [July 14, 2011, 7:36pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/lower-abdomen-goings-on/589045/4 "2011-07-14T19:36:21Z")
Have you seen a doctor? This could be anything from excess gas to appendicitis. ---
**Author:** ![Sandra\_Battye](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/sandra_battye/32/552_2.png) [@Sandra\_Battye](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sandra_Battye)\ **Post date:** [July 14, 2011, 8:21pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/lower-abdomen-goings-on/589045/5 "2011-07-14T20:21:25Z")
Could you be pregnant? An ectopic pregnancy that way to me. If so, get thee to a hospital asap! ---
**Author:** ![Living\_Well\_Is\_Best\_Revenge](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/6bbea6/32.png) [@Living\_Well\_Is\_Best\_Revenge](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Living_Well_Is_Best_Revenge)\ **Post date:** [July 14, 2011, 8:33pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/lower-abdomen-goings-on/589045/6 "2011-07-14T20:33:57Z")
I’ve heard appendicitis described like this. But that is a really bad stomachache. You’d know something was wrong. ---
**Author:** ![GrandWino](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/grandwino/32/67_2.png) [@GrandWino](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/GrandWino)\ **Post date:** [July 14, 2011, 8:35pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/lower-abdomen-goings-on/589045/7 "2011-07-14T20:35:12Z")
Stop eating so much cabbage. ---
**Author:** ![Magiver](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/4491bb/32.png) [@Magiver](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Magiver)\ **Post date:** [July 14, 2011, 8:36pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/lower-abdomen-goings-on/589045/8 "2011-07-14T20:36:12Z")
You don’t have to be a doctor to diagnose constipation. Palpitate your own abdomen on the left side moving to the right along the belt line. If it is tender and feels solid then you’re lack of bowel movements are confirmed. ---
**Author:** ![needscoffee](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/needscoffee/32/1076_2.png) [@needscoffee](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/needscoffee)\ **Post date:** [July 15, 2011, 12:21am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/lower-abdomen-goings-on/589045/9 "2011-07-15T00:21:12Z")
> [@Magiver](#): > > You don’t have to be a doctor to diagnose constipation. Palpitate your own abdomen on the left side moving to the right along the belt line. If it is tender and feels solid then you’re lack of bowel movements are confirmed. Nitpick: palpate ---
**Author:** ![SeaDragonTattoo](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/df705f/32.png) [@SeaDragonTattoo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/SeaDragonTattoo)\ **Post date:** [July 15, 2011, 12:24am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/lower-abdomen-goings-on/589045/10 "2011-07-15T00:24:24Z")
> [@needscoffee](#): > > Nitpick: palpate Har. ‘Cause if it’s palpitatin’, you may be giving birth to an alien soon! ---
**Author:** ![brainstall](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/35a633/32.png) [@brainstall](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/brainstall)\ **Post date:** [July 15, 2011, 12:28am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/lower-abdomen-goings-on/589045/11 "2011-07-15T00:28:01Z")
I walked around for a week with appendicitis. I felt like crap and my guts hurt, but it wasn’t the excruciating pain I’d heard about and I went to work every day. I even went to emerg and they weren’t sure what was wrong with me and let me discharge myself in the morning. When I went back to the hospital on the advice of my family doctor a few days later, my appendix had ruptured and encapsulated in my abdomen. If untreated, I would have lived, but would have felt like I had the flu for a couple of months, according to the doctor. I opted to have surgery. ---
**Author:** ![Ambivalid](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/a5b964/32.png) [@Ambivalid](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ambivalid)\ **Post date:** [July 15, 2011, 12:28am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/lower-abdomen-goings-on/589045/12 "2011-07-15T00:28:47Z")
> [@Magiver](#): > > You don’t have to be a doctor to diagnose constipation. Palpitate your own abdomen on the left side moving to the right along the belt line. If it is tender and feels solid then you’re lack of bowel movements are confirmed. Additional nitpick: You don’t have to do all that to diagnose constipation, either. Constipation is a symptom, not a disease. Is it difficult to shit? Do you strain when having a bowel movement? Are you having fewer bowel movements than is normal for you? If yes, you are constipated. The question is why. ---
**Author:** ![phall0106](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/phall0106/32/5934_2.png) [@phall0106](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/phall0106)\ **Post date:** [July 15, 2011, 12:29am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/lower-abdomen-goings-on/589045/13 "2011-07-15T00:29:13Z")
Are you actually passing gas? I had sharp abdomen pains that came and went. I thought it was gas and took medicine for it. It gradually got worse in a relatively short period of time (throughout the day). I went to the Dr. who did bloodwork and did all the “press on the pain” thing (no rebound pain), so he sent me home, only to call me a couple of hours later when the blood work came back. Seems the bloodwork showed I had an infection, so I went to the ER. They did an ultrasound and discovered that my innards were all in a tither. Unknowningly, I had endrometrosis which had formed a huge assed cyst on my ovary and by the time they got me into surgery, I bled like a stuck pig. Ended up having a complete hysterectomy because it was a mass of unpleasantness in there. Not to freak you out, but it felt like gas pains. And, I’d had a recent GYN exam that was fine (never detected endometrosis and I never had ANY signs of it until that day). Go to the doctor. ---
**Author:** ![Magiver](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/4491bb/32.png) [@Magiver](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Magiver)\ **Post date:** [July 15, 2011, 12:30am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/lower-abdomen-goings-on/589045/14 "2011-07-15T00:30:31Z")
> [@Magiver](#): > > You don’t have to be a doctor to diagnose constipation. Palpitate your own abdomen on the left side moving to the right along the belt line. If it is tender and feels solid then you’re lack of bowel movements are confirmed. Well I spell checked “something” correctly. 🙂 Alex, I’ll take birthing Aliens for $200