What Are the Diverticulitis Symptoms?

The first step to becoming healthy and fixing anything that might be wrong with your body is knowing what is wrong, if anything. Diverticulitis is a disease of the colon that can cause serious complications to your health. Knowing you have the disease will put you in the best place to treat it so that you no longer have to worry about it. The first step, of course, to finding out if you have it is to learn about what the diverticulitis symptoms are so that you can get further testing done at a doctor’s office.

Unfortunately, most patients do not experience many symptoms with diverticulitis. This can often make it difficult to diagnose when it is not immediately apparent that something is wrong. However, there are a few warning signs that could indicate that diverticulitis is affecting you.

Abdominal Cramping

This symptom is often the most experienced of all the diverticulitis symptoms. Cramping seems like a common problem, but this type of cramping will often be quite severe. Similarly, it will usually come on suddenly and will be mostly occurring in the left hand side of your abdomen. The cramping will not be something that goes away after a few minutes and can even persist for days at a time. It is a persistent form of cramping that can often fluctuate in intensity.

Diarrhea and Constipation

Any change in your bowel habits when you have not recently had a major change in diet can be a big sign that something is wrong and is one of the diverticulitis symptoms that is often experienced by people who are suffering from this condition. If you notice a change in your bowel habits, especially when in combination with extreme abdominal cramping as outlined above, then it is recommended that you at least get checked by a doctor.

Bleeding



One of the less common symptoms is any type of bleeding from your rectum. This is often a sign that you are experiencing diverticulitis symptoms and that it is quite severe. Perhaps you ignored the cramping and constipation or diarrhe, but bleeding is a very serious symptom which requires immediate medical attention. Go and see your doctor immediately if you experience any form of bleeding.

What Do You Do Now?

If you find that you are experiencing any or all of these symptoms, then it is highly recommended for you to go to your doctor for further testing to find out if you do, in fact, have diverticulitis. Having a symptom or two does not necessarily mean that you have it for sure, but it is certainly more likely that you do.

Although there are no clear-cut diverticulitis symptoms, the ones listed above are certainly the most common. If you are experiencing them and find that you do have the disease, then it is not the worst thing that could happen. It is treatable through various methods, and it is certainly possible to live a normal life with it. The first step to improving your life is to find out what’s wrong and then fix it.

Related Articles

↑ Back to Top
,