Post-enema Constipation

Apologies if this has been posted before - I did search but couldn't see anything.

I was wondering if anyone else suffers from constipation in the days following a good enema clean out?

I am primarily into the erotic side of enemas, not so much the therapeutic side so I don't take them too regularly. Lately I've noticed that in the days following a session (3-5 enemas with soap, lemon juice or salt) I get a bit bunged up. Not totally - I do still pass after a couple of days - but it can be quite uncomfortable and the bowel movements are not particularly satisfying as I don't manage to get everything out.

Does anyone have any advice on this? Do I need to change my approach to enemas? Drink more water, etc ?

I had a fairly healthy diet, decent amount of veg, not too much rubbish. Any advice gratefully received!

Good common sense question. Enemas can clean out your colon, but they can also leave you dehydrated. I suggest that you follow with an extra regimen of water and other sensible liquids (juices, Gatorade, etc) that will restore electrolytes and hydration. And be extra smart about your diet afterwards. Eat a bit lighter for a day or so after a clean out -- even healthy soups. With me, it's not unusual to go a day or two without a BM after a high enema, especially if I've been sick. It takes a while for all that stuff to make it through that long tunnel and around those curves! Hydration helps the body move it along, and so does exercise. That's important, too. Hope this helps.

When I do my enema sessions, I will do them so that I will clear high up into my colon. This will result in me having little to no BMs the following day. The second day after, my system will begin to return to normal- 1 BM maybe a bit smaller than usual. By the third day after the session, I am pretty much back to normal. This reset period is why I like to space my sessions at least a week apart.

So you are probably experiencing this lag effect to some extent where your system is resetting before returning to where it was before your enema session. If you having a hard time getting back to "normal," then yes you should try all the tricks to help with constipation: drink lots of water and eat plenty of fiber. My other suggestion would be to try using just tap water instead of your recipes for your enemas. You may find that tap water maybe a bit easier on your system and allow it to return to normal without the constipation.

Good luck.

If possible start a couple days prior to Enema session taking psyllium husk tablets. Then add probiotics pills too! Keep up till all is back to normal.

Makes recovery of bowel movements softer, not rocks. I always take exactly three days to have first bm after clean out.

If I have diarrhea after #1 strong sse, then i have to rinse immediately.

If you have taken a full clean out (2 qts. or more bags full in a session) you have emptied the entire colon, you will not get back to normal for 2-3 days. This is not true constipation, but the slow build up of a normal amount of intestinal content to let you go daily. I do this on purpose as I have no sigmoid or internal sphincters to hold bowel content for a daily movement. I will go 8-10 times a day in small quantities, if I don't do an every 3 day large clean out.

Thanks for all the feedback guys and gals.

I totally understand the idea that if I'm empty it'll take a while for things going on the conveyor belt to come off it, so to speak.

However, what I have been finding is that the stuff on the conveyor is certainly more challenging to move along, leavin me feeling a bit bloated and bunged up.

I'll be sure to consciously drink more and do some exercise post enema session next time. I definitely don't want to give up my enema fun because of this!

It can easily take 36 hours for your bowel to re-fill!

It can easily take three to four days.

I know from personal experience what you are talking about. I just assumed that the natural flora needed time to regenerate and get the normal process going. If nothing got going in three days, the enema procedure gets repeated. Usually after that I get back to a normal rhythm.

In case anyone was interested I went through another set of enemas the other day. This time I used Imperial Leather soap instead of a vegetable oil soap I'd used before.

I don't know why but this time round my constipation has been non existent since the enema. I wonder if it is because the soap is a bit harsher. The cramps were certainly more intense and I felt like I got a much better clean out. I did drink more water though, as well as getting out on my bike so maybe that had a part to play too.

So far, at least, I have not needed a "procedure" of any kind to get back to a normal rhythm. It just sort of happens. When I get to the age my father is now, we'll see what happens!

Normal feces, that means in people not taking enemas, is 20-30% bacteria by weight. The enema washes out almost all of it (just like washing your hands eliminates 99.9% of bacteria), especially if you get to a clear (no darker than chicken broth) return. Of course bacteria will re-grow because the enema does not sterilize the colon, but it takes time--about a week--AND MOST IMPORTANT, the lack of a fully developed flora makes it much easier for opportunistic bacteria to take hold due to a lack of competition (C. difficile comes to mind among others) to cause infections and pathology.

And would the opportunistic bad bacteria lead to constipation?

I will often eat/drink an activia or similar after an enema series.

The empty colon would lead to minimal peristalsis due to the lack of need temporarily.

If you are waiting three days after an enema, you are allowing the illness causing bacteria to grow and be distributed throughout the body by the blood stream. It's better have a regular enema regimin and stay clean. A side benefit to enemas is that they keep you hydrated. Remember that, an enema a day keeps the doctor away.

If you are waiting three days after an enema, you are allowing the illness causing bacteria to grow and be distributed throughout the body by the blood stream. It's better have a regular enema regimin and stay clean. A side benefit to enemas is that they keep you hydrated. Remember that, an enema a day keeps the doctor away.

That is possible, but not necessarily true. It it were, most of us here who play with enemas would be dead.

If you want to get hydrated, drink some water. You don't have to hold it in, worry about farting, and 100% of it will be absorbed.

The notion that disease causing bacteria build up is akin to the belief of autointoxication from stool buildup and this just isn't true. That notion was disproved 75 years ago.

Vicki.V wote:

"Enemas... can...leave you dehydrated".

That depends upon the type and amount of enema:

Tap water would hydrate, not dehydrate.

A 0.9% table salt (NaCl) is isotonic, and would not affect hydration either way.

Small volume saline, e.g. Fleet Phospho-Soda enema will move some water from the blood to the lumen (the 'inside of the tube', as it were) of the colon, but, if the person is healthy, the amount of water removed is insignificant.

A large volume saline enema, such as the epsom salt enemas that my wife and I used to sometimes use, may be dehydrating.

I haven't done the calculations about this, but if anyone here might like to, the following article might help:

https://books.google.com/books?id=i11TBgAAQBAJ&pg=PA421&lpg=PA421&dq=epsom+salt+osmotic+pressure&source=bl&ots=Y7MTjZKM6r&sig=i4iPTHjnfpHqMt3CgrfvdSLFCMU&hl=en&sa=X&ei=8EOOVeW5C4HboASZ_bWADg&ved=0CFAQ6AEwCA#v=onepage&q=epsom%20salt%20osmotic%20pressure&f=false

What Switchable Suzie said about opportunistic pathological (bad for you) bacteria is so important, that it deserves to be reinforced:

The most common lower bowel pathogen may well be clostridium difficile, which kills luminal intestinal cells by producing a poison, "cytotoxin B". This causes the bowel to slough off parts of the lumen wall surface, producing a type of diarrhea called "pseudo membrane" diarrhea, so called, because part of the runny stool looks like thin sheets of membrane, but are not. It does not tend to go away by itself.

C. difficile is a tough bacterium, needing a large amount of competing, benign bacteria to prevent it from growing to dangerous levels.

Disclaimer: I am not a doctor. The succeeding story is not medical advice. It is an anecdote, not a suggestion.

One should always see a doctor when sick, because your condition may not be the same as someone else's, and your body certainly is not.

When that (very, very rarely) happens to me, I use a probiotic (an off-the-shelf cocktail of harmless, competing bacteria). I have used tablets of 2 billion organisms and of 15 billion. I usually get well with 3 tables of 15 billion organisms, 8 hours apart, for two days. I only get temporary help from the two billion tablets.

Don't misinterpret the foregoing as medical advice. It is an anecdote, not a suggestion. I am not a doctor.

If anything is consistent for me after enjoying a round of enema indulgences, it is that things seem quite inconsistent and sometimes unpredictable. I suppose that much of the inconsistency relates to my post-enema diet and fluid intake. My diet consists of most common American dishes, as well as varied ethnic types of food.

After a good cleanse, it isn't that unusual to find that I can produce the 12-18 inches of stool that some view as optimal. This often occurs within an 18-24 hour period. Sometimes, I go without a BM until the 2nd day after a good cleanse. This stool might be quite firm and could be indicative of constipation. A small squirt from a bulb syringe seems to help avoid damage to the sensitive tissues.

There are those times that I am going several times after the cleanse. This would be most common when I took a single enema for shits and giggles. While it may just cleanse the rectal vault and not empty my entire tract, these enemas are often spur of the moment. These seldom create any disruption in my otherwise normal bowel habits.

LiquidSky - unfortunately you're wrong. If anecdotal evidence and personal experience aren't enough, consult - among others - bedrokcommunity and healinghaven.

Squidgi, I'm sorry but the only literature which I can truly believe in is scientifically based articles with double blind studies. All else is sadly anecdotal.

Liquidsky, would you be willing to point us to a free, on-line copy of those studies?

I'm sorry but they don't exist which I guess is the point. I'm sorry but all the GI docs whom I know consider enema health a little fringy. I enjoy them myself but don't subscribe to the idea that they particularly have long range health benefits. I wish I could tell you differently.

Most peer reviewed studies are published in scientific and medical journals. These are professional publications aimed at researchers and those practicing in the field. They are almost always membership or pay sites. Don't know what you might find, but I think stuff on the NIH site is public and available. Our tax dollars at work in the US. I think the site is nih.gov.

Quincy's assertion as regards results of blind studies are correct & are rarely made available to the general population. If & when they are there's usually a fee attached due to the costs involved.

Even if one were to go via the Freedom Of Information route there's no guarantee there'll be no financial consideration attached

wondering if anyone else suffers from constipation in the days following a good enema clean out?

Never was a big problem. Guess I was lucky. But if I didn't produce in a couple of days, it was a good excuse to get out the bag once again.

Generally after a series of enemas (sexual stimulation) it takes about 1-3 days for things to resume to “normal”.❤🚀😜😉

After an enema or couple of enemas, I’m back to normal in twenty four to thirty six hours.

As teenagers when my siblings and I were actively giving each other enemas two or three time a week. We never went longer than thirty six hours before having a normal bowel movement. Once I got married in my twenties, the same held true for my wife and I. When we first got married, it was two or three times a week, just as it had been when I was a teenager. After a few months, it slowed to once or twice a week and remained there for well over ten years. Neither I or my wife ever went longer than thirty six hours after a couple of enemas in well over ten years, and like I stated above, that still holds true today.

This is not unexpected.

If someone gets a mighty enema that pretty much empties all the poo out of their colon, it's no surprise there is no more poo coming down for a couple of days. The ‘normal’ transit time is two to three days… this is the time between poo enters the large bowel and it's passed out though the anus. If the enema completely empties the recipient's bowel, there is simply nothing to come out.

Wen I received a large bagful of warm, soapy water as a kid, as described in other posts, I was watched to make sure the enema was effective and I pood more than just water. Wen it became obvious the enema had ‘worked’ I was given a spoonful of liquid laxative while I was still siting on the toilet… to keep me going.

On another occasion, I asked a druggist for an enema and got a Fleet. But he also recommended an oral laxative o be taken after the enema had worked. Of course, I said yes.

So, if you do tend to get constipated after a big enema, taking a dose o two of Miralax can help by keeping your poo soft until it passes though and out. One colon hydotheapist gave me 2 Oz of oil, rectally, after each session, for the same reason, and that worked well too.