What is worth taking to a doctor

Bloating is persistent rather than coming and going, particularly if it has lasted three weeks or more.

There is blood in your stool, or your stool is black.

Your bowel habit has changed and stayed changed.

You are losing weight without trying.

There is pain that keeps returning, or difficulty swallowing.

You are being sick repeatedly, or have heartburn that needs treating most weeks.

Persistent bloating is a symptom that gets attributed to diet, to stress and to the menopause, by women and sometimes by clinicians. It is also on the list of symptoms that can point at ovarian cancer, which is easiest to treat when it is found early.

Getting it checked is the proportionate response, not an overreaction. Most of the time it will be nothing, and that is a good outcome rather than a wasted appointment.

Narrated cannot tell you what is happening in your body and does not try to. This is the general list of things clinicians ask people not to sit on.