Why Is My Poop Stringy? 5 Causes of Narrow, Thin Stools

Written by Susan Bernstein

Medically Reviewed by Jennifer Robinson, MD on April 26, 2021

• Constipation
• Colorectal Cancer
• Anal Cancer
• Irritable Bowel Syndrome
• Parasitic Gut Infections

Admit it: You sometimes peek at your poop in the toilet bowl after a bowel movement (BM). Have you ever noticed that your stool is narrow, long, pencil-thin, or stringy?

If your poop is narrow or stringy only once in a while, it’s no big deal. But if it happens often, it may be a sign of certain health problems.

Stringy stool could be a sign of both minor and more serious health conditions, like these:

Constipation is when you poop less than three times a week. It can have many different symptoms. While narrow or pencil-thin stool is not always a sign of constipation, it may be if your poop doesn’t normally look that way.

Constipation is usually caused by a lack of fiber in your diet or not enough exercise. Other causes include pregnancy, travel, use of some medications, and changes in your hormone levels.

When you’re constipated, your stool may be hard, dry, and difficult to pass. It may look lumpy.

Having narrow or pencil-thin BMs on occasion isn’t something to worry about. If it looks that way all the time or it gets narrower over time, it could be a concern, so let your doctor know.

If constipation is the cause of your narrow poop, you might also have these symptoms:

• Belly cramps or pain
• Bloating or gas
• Lack of energy
• Low appetite
• Need to strain when you poop
• Feel like you can’t get all the poop out

Simple constipation treatments include:

• Add more fiber to your diet, at least 25 grams a day.
• Eat more whole grains, fresh fruits, and veggies.
• Get more physical activity.
• Drink more fluids like water.

You may think that the easy way to treat constipation is to take an over-the-counter laxative. But if you overuse laxatives, it can make things worse. Talk to your doctor before you take any laxative, so you know it’s the right treatment for you.

If you have stool that’s suddenly stringy or poop that gets pencil-thin over time, does it mean you have cancer? Doctors used to link narrow BMs to colorectal or colon cancer. That’s because they thought that cancer in your colon caused it to become narrower, and your poop would look narrow after it passed through.

Now, they no longer think this is always the case. Gradual narrowing of your stool could be one symptom of colon cancer, but it’s usually the result of other, much less serious conditions.

Ask your doctor if you need to take any tests to rule out colorectal cancer, like a colonoscopy.

If colorectal cancer is the cause of your narrow stool, you might have these other symptoms:

• Blood in or on your stool
• Changes in your poop habits, like diarrhea, constipation, or bowel incontinence (poop leaks)
• Anemia
• Belly pain or bloating
• Weight loss you can’t explain
• Vomiting

Colon cancer treatments include surgery, radiation, and chemotherapy.

Narrow stool could be a sign of another, rare kind of cancer: anal cancer. It’s a cancer that starts in your anus, or the outer part of your rectum where poop comes out.

Poop that changes in shape and becomes narrower is one possible sign of anal cancer, which is usually caused by infection with the human papillomavirus (HPV).

If anal cancer is the cause of your narrow bowel movements, you may have these other symptoms:

• Pain, a “full” feeling, bleeding, or itching in your rectum
• Strange rectal discharge
• Lumps felt around the opening of your anus
• Swollen lymph nodes around your anus

Anal cancer is usually treated with surgery, radiation, and chemotherapy.

Changes in your poop’s shape or size can be a sign of irritable bowel syndrome (IBS). Your stool may look smaller or narrower than normal. Its texture can change. You may have diarrhea, which can look stringy.

If irritable bowel syndrome is the cause of your narrow stool, you might also have these other symptoms:

• Constipation
• Gas
• Bloating
• Mucus in your poop
• Strong urge to go
• Belly cramps that ease after you poop
• After you poop, you feel like you have to go again

To manage IBS, get more fiber in your diet. Soluble fiber in foods like fresh apples, oranges, and beans can ease constipation and diarrhea. Insoluble fiber in foods like whole grains can bulk up your stool so it passes more normally.

Stress may trigger IBS episodes, so try to find healthy ways to manage stress, like exercise.

Parasites like tiny worms can get into your gut and cause thin, stringy BMs or stringy, loose diarrhea.

These bugs are also called roundworms. They live in the soil and can get into your food, then live in your gut.

Roundworms are more common in hot, humid parts of the world, underdeveloped countries, and places where there is poor sanitation.

If roundworms are the cause of your stringy, thin poop, you may have these other symptoms:

• Fever
• Shortness of breath
• Cough or wheeze
• Belly pain
• Nausea
• Vomiting
• You see actual worms in your poop

If the worms stick around in your gut for a long time, they can block your bowels. Signs of a blockage are severe belly pain and vomiting. If you have these symptoms, get help from a doctor right away.

Contact your doctor right away if you think you or your child has a parasitic infection or worms. Diarrhea can dehydrate you very quickly.

Your doctor may prescribe the drug albendazole to get rid of the roundworms and their eggs.

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Why Is My Poop Stringy? 5 Causes of Narrow, Thin Stools

Written by Susan Bernstein

Medically Reviewed by Jennifer Robinson, MD on April 26, 2021

• Constipation
• Colorectal Cancer
• Anal Cancer
• Irritable Bowel Syndrome
• Parasitic Gut Infections

Admit it: You sometimes peek at your poop in the toilet bowl after a bowel movement (BM). Have you ever noticed that your stool is narrow, long, pencil-thin, or stringy?

If your poop is narrow or stringy only once in a while, it’s no big deal. But if it happens often, it may be a sign of certain health problems.

Stringy stool could be a sign of both minor and more serious health conditions, like these:

Constipation is when you poop less than three times a week. It can have many different symptoms. While narrow or pencil-thin stool is not always a sign of constipation, it may be if your poop doesn’t normally look that way.

Constipation is usually caused by a lack of fiber in your diet or not enough exercise. Other causes include pregnancy, travel, use of some medications, and changes in your hormone levels.

When you’re constipated, your stool may be hard, dry, and difficult to pass. It may look lumpy.

Having narrow or pencil-thin BMs on occasion isn’t something to worry about. If it looks that way all the time or it gets narrower over time, it could be a concern, so let your doctor know.

If constipation is the cause of your narrow poop, you might also have these symptoms:

• Belly cramps or pain
• Bloating or gas
• Lack of energy
• Low appetite
• Need to strain when you poop
• Feel like you can’t get all the poop out

Simple constipation treatments include:

• Add more fiber to your diet, at least 25 grams a day.
• Eat more whole grains, fresh fruits, and veggies.
• Get more physical activity.
• Drink more fluids like water.

You may think that the easy way to treat constipation is to take an over-the-counter laxative. But if you overuse laxatives, it can make things worse. Talk to your doctor before you take any laxative, so you know it’s the right treatment for you.

If you have stool that’s suddenly stringy or poop that gets pencil-thin over time, does it mean you have cancer? Doctors used to link narrow BMs to colorectal or colon cancer. That’s because they thought that cancer in your colon caused it to become narrower, and your poop would look narrow after it passed through.

Now, they no longer think this is always the case. Gradual narrowing of your stool could be one symptom of colon cancer, but it’s usually the result of other, much less serious conditions.

Ask your doctor if you need to take any tests to rule out colorectal cancer, like a colonoscopy.

If colorectal cancer is the cause of your narrow stool, you might have these other symptoms:

• Blood in or on your stool
• Changes in your poop habits, like diarrhea, constipation, or bowel incontinence (poop leaks)
• Anemia
• Belly pain or bloating
• Weight loss you can’t explain
• Vomiting

Colon cancer treatments include surgery, radiation, and chemotherapy.

Narrow stool could be a sign of another, rare kind of cancer: anal cancer. It’s a cancer that starts in your anus, or the outer part of your rectum where poop comes out.

Poop that changes in shape and becomes narrower is one possible sign of anal cancer, which is usually caused by infection with the human papillomavirus (HPV).

If anal cancer is the cause of your narrow bowel movements, you may have these other symptoms:

• Pain, a “full” feeling, bleeding, or itching in your rectum
• Strange rectal discharge
• Lumps felt around the opening of your anus
• Swollen lymph nodes around your anus

Anal cancer is usually treated with surgery, radiation, and chemotherapy.

Changes in your poop’s shape or size can be a sign of irritable bowel syndrome (IBS). Your stool may look smaller or narrower than normal. Its texture can change. You may have diarrhea, which can look stringy.

If irritable bowel syndrome is the cause of your narrow stool, you might also have these other symptoms:

• Constipation
• Gas
• Bloating
• Mucus in your poop
• Strong urge to go
• Belly cramps that ease after you poop
• After you poop, you feel like you have to go again

To manage IBS, get more fiber in your diet. Soluble fiber in foods like fresh apples, oranges, and beans can ease constipation and diarrhea. Insoluble fiber in foods like whole grains can bulk up your stool so it passes more normally.

Stress may trigger IBS episodes, so try to find healthy ways to manage stress, like exercise.

Parasites like tiny worms can get into your gut and cause thin, stringy BMs or stringy, loose diarrhea.

These bugs are also called roundworms. They live in the soil and can get into your food, then live in your gut.

Roundworms are more common in hot, humid parts of the world, underdeveloped countries, and places where there is poor sanitation.

If roundworms are the cause of your stringy, thin poop, you may have these other symptoms:

• Fever
• Shortness of breath
• Cough or wheeze
• Belly pain
• Nausea
• Vomiting
• You see actual worms in your poop

If the worms stick around in your gut for a long time, they can block your bowels. Signs of a blockage are severe belly pain and vomiting. If you have these symptoms, get help from a doctor right away.

Contact your doctor right away if you think you or your child has a parasitic infection or worms. Diarrhea can dehydrate you very quickly.

Your doctor may prescribe the drug albendazole to get rid of the roundworms and their eggs.

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Hemorrhoids in a child | Clinic Fantasy

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Other services of the section “Children’s proctology”

• Consultation of a pediatric proctologist

• Treatment of constipation and other defecation disorders with botulinum toxin type A in children

Manipulations, procedures, operations

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• Constipation in a child

• Fecal incontinence (encopresis) in children

• anal fissures

• Blood in baby’s stool

• Papillomas and condylomas of the anus in a child

• Hirschsprung disease

• Gut Management Program

• Bowel dysfunction in children

• Anomalies in the location of the anus

• paraproctitis

Radiography and computed tomography

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Causes of exacerbation of hemorrhoids during menstruation

Varicose veins of the anorectal vessels are an unpleasant and common ailment. Quite often it occurs in women, while the course of the disease is complex – hemorrhoids worsen during menstruation, thereby worsening the general condition. Menstruation and hemorrhoids are interconnected, similar is caused by physiological processes. Let us analyze in more detail what the changes are connected with, how to improve well-being.

If external hemorrhoids are in a severe stage, treatment should be prescribed immediately.

Why do hemorrhoids get worse during menstruation

The first step is to figure out why hemorrhoids get worse during menstruation. Hemorrhoids – an increase and expansion of venous vessels. They are located in the rectal cavity, next to the rectal canal.

During menstruation, hemorrhoids become aggravated, which is caused by the preparation of the body, as a result of which the hormonal background changes, blood actively flows to the pelvic area. All this leads to the following changes:

1. When hormones are out of balance, the immune system decreases and one feels worse. As a result, infection of hemorrhoids with pathogens is high.
2. Cavernous formations fill with blood, thereby increasing in size. Inflammation occurs, the bumps fall out of the internal cavity.
3. In the genitals, blood flow increases, therefore, the pressure on the lower part of the digestive tract also increases.
4. Before the start of the menstrual cycle, women have increased appetite. Many begin to consume a lot of sweet, salty, fried, smoked. All this food causes constipation or diarrhea, which is another reason why hemorrhoids get worse during menstruation.

After the menstrual cycle, hemorrhoids cease to bother women, in addition, acute symptoms decrease. However, such improvements are often misleading.
It is important to understand that before the next menstruation, hemorrhoids will reappear.

What to do if an exacerbation occurs during such a period

Since hemorrhoids appear during menstruation, it is worth knowing how to treat it. Treatment in this case is practically no different from standard therapy.

There are a number of rules that must be observed if there are signs of hemorrhoids in women during the menstrual cycle:

1. Cold therapy is prohibited. Do not use homemade candles, ice lotions.
2. Physical activity is kept to a minimum. It is not recommended to lift weights, play sports. The maximum that is allowed for symptoms of hemorrhoids in women is light exercise.
3. If you follow your cycle, you can anticipate exacerbation in advance and prevent it. For 2-3 days, exclude from the diet everything spicy, sweet, fatty, you need to drink a lot.
4. Since one of the causes of hemorrhoids in women is constipation, consume as much fiber as possible.
5. If menstruation is accompanied by pain, it would be useful to take painkillers. For example, “No-shpa”, “Drotaverin”, “Nurofen”.

These rules are simple, so it is not so difficult to follow them. If you know in advance the causes of hemorrhoids, then the treatment in women will be easier, and most importantly, it can be prevented.

How to prevent exacerbation of hemorrhoids

If each menstrual cycle is accompanied by pain and hemorrhoidal symptoms, a number of measures are required to prevent the occurrence of a problem:

1. Diet adjustment. The diet for hemorrhoids for women does not fit – exclude spicy, fried, sweet, alcohol. It is best to eat fresh fruits, vegetables, cereals. You need to eat several times a day, but in small portions.
2. If the work is connected with a sedentary way, then from time to time it is worth getting up, doing a light workout. It is also worth swapping out your work chair for a chair with a hard seat.
3. Complete refusal to lift weights. Women, especially during the menstrual cycle, are advised to completely stop lifting weights, since such actions lead to increased blood flow to the nodules.
4. Clothes are also important. Do not wear clothing that is tight around the pelvis during this time. For a while, give up thongs, tight jeans and other wardrobe items that fit snugly against the anus.
5. Strict observance of all rules of personal hygiene. For example, it is worth washing the genitals on a regular basis with warm water.
6. Avoid hard toilet paper. It has been proven that if during the menstrual cycle women refuse standard toilet paper and use special napkins, then the exacerbation of hemorrhoids can be significantly reduced.

Thus, clinical symptoms that begin to actively worsen in a certain period of time can be easily prevented. To do this, it is enough to follow simple rules of prevention. Take care of your health – this will be the best therapy for any disease. Make an appointment at the proctology center to solve your hemorrhoid problems once and for all.

The menstrual cycle and anal varicose veins are a common and unpleasant problem that occurs in women.