If you keep getting up at night to go to the loo, this could be the frightening reason: DR ELLIE For the past two months I have been getting up three to four times in the night to empty my bowels.
It can also cause you to pass mucus, and how often you go to the toilet can also change, so starting to open your bowels at night could be a symptom.
If it first happens more than three months after the radiotherapy, it is called chronic proctopathy rather than acute, which happens straight away.
A colonoscopy ruled out cancer – I recently had treatment for prostate cancer – and I was told it might be diverticulitis so I should just eat more fibre.
Emptying the bowels is controlled by the pelvic floor – a sling of muscle between the legs that supports the pelvic organs.
