# What does steatorrhea look like?



## faze action (Aug 6, 2009)

I'm going to use a lot of disgusting adjectives, so sorry in advance.







For the past 6 weeks or so my stool has been soft, and very sticky (it sticks to everything: me, the toilet bowl, etc.). I usually have to flush twice to dispose of everything and I go through a LOT of toilet paper. My stool also looks greasy (like someone coated it in oil or something), and this morning I noticed what looked like an oil slick in the water after I went.I looked up steatorrhea and majority of what I've read seems to indicate that malabsorption issues result in stool that floats and is "frothy". Mine is neither of those, so I'm wondering what's going on. I don't even eat all that much fat in my diet (mostly vegetarian, non-fat yogurt, lots of veg./fruit, etc). Now, I had a stool similar to this when I had the bacterial overgrowth before, but I don't have any of the other symptoms that I had with that (bloating is actually minimal right now, no cramping etc).I have also been on iron supplements since last September for low serum ferritin, and they helped, but lately I've been feeling a lot like I did prior to starting the iron: lightheaded, weak, short of breath, dizzy, etc. even though I am still on the iron. I was supposed to have a doctor's appointment with my primary care doctor week after next and get another blood panel done, but she had to postpone the appt. for some reason, so now I don't see her until late April. Just wanted to try to get a handle on this since I have to wait now.


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## Kathleen M. (Nov 16, 1999)

Unfortunately I don't know if you can tell soft stools from diarrhea with gas bubbles enough to make it float and frothy with mucus (which can look shiny like oil) from stools due to malabsorption. If you eat lots of fruits and veggies you will tend to have softer gassier stools than people who eat a high fat mostly meat diet.If you are losing weight all out of proportion to what you eat you may need a fecal fat test, but if your weight and your caloires you eat are pretty much in line with each other I wouldn't worry.Most every single "really scary stool" you can find has non-scary reasons for coming out.


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