How can bowel irrigation help?
Balanced expectations are key to success
Living with bowel problems can have considerable influence on your quality of life – both on your personal life and your hobbies, but it may also result in decreased ability to work.
Overall effect of bowel irrigation
Here are some of the effects that can be achieved by using bowel irrigation routinely:
- Control of defecation: Regain control of bowel activity.
- Prolonged continence period (24-48hrs): Gaining confidence to live life to the fullest again.
- Increased wellbeing: Reduced symptoms of nausea, fatigue, lack of appetite and bowel accidents.
- More hygienic: May reduce risk of urinary tract infections.
- Reduced time spent on bowel management: On average, users spend 15-30 minutes on bowel management every day or every other day.
- Overall improved quality of life: Better health and improved well-being in general.
Bowel irrigation represents a simple treatment option when other methods like diet, therapy or toilet training have failed to result in adequate improvements of the bowel function.
What to be aware of when using bowel irrigation products
When using bowel irrigation, these simple rules must be followed:
- Use only after assessment and training from a qualified healthcare professional.
- A digital rectal examination is mandatory prior to the first irrigation.
- The first irrigation should be supervised by an experienced healthcare professional.
- Always follow the instructions for use. This will reduce the risk of bowel perforation, which, although rare, is a potential complication of using irrigation. If this occurs, seek immediate medical attention.
- Bowel irrigation is an invasive procedure. Therefore, to ensure it remains a successful procedure, any changes (such as amount of water used or the frequency of irrigation) should always be done as directed by a healthcare professional
Some minor side effects might occur, such as minor abdominal pain, nausea, light bleeding or fatigue.
Understanding bowel irrigation
Bowel irrigation simply involves instilling warm tap water into the rectum via the anus to help emptying the colon.
Who can benefit from bowel irrigation?
Bowel irrigation is reported to be beneficial in managing functional and neurogenic bowel disorders.
Bowel care products
We believe everyone deserves the right to bowel irrigation solutions that fit seamlessly into their lives.
Personal stories
Some of our product users wanted to share their experiences of their life with bowel dysfunction and how bowel irrigation is helping them.