It could be one of the last medical taboos. It's a condition so embarrassing that two thirds of patients never seek treatment, but suffer in silence instead. Faecal incontinence affects eight times more women than men - and is often linked to physical damage caused to the mother during childbirth.
Martha speaks to one woman who waited two years before going to her doctor, and to Andrea Read, a colorectal specialist nurse from the Royal Victoria Infirmary in Newcastle.
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