Q: I suffer neither from diarrhoea nor dysentery but occasionally, mucous comes out with my stool. What could be the cause for such a symptom? Its not that mucous comes out only when I go to the toilet but many a times it also occurs involuntarily when I am perhaps in some mental stress or anxiety. I don't suffer from any abdominal ailments, I have taken diarrhoea and dysentery pills but none of them have worked so far. Please give me some cause and necessary steps that I should take.

A:Your symptoms of passage of mucous per rectum in the absence of diarrhoea or dysentery suggests that it is a form of irritable bowel, which is worsened by stress and anxiety. The normal cells of the large intestine (colon) produce mucous as a part of their bodily function and it is not abnormal for some mucous to be passed out through the back passage. You should not be alarmed by this and there is nothing that is wrong with your large intestine. If you have any diarrhoea or constipation, bleeding per rectum, or change in bowel habit, you may need further investigations which may include a flexible sigmoidoscopy and colonic biopsies to exclude a pathology.