What are the signs of appendicitis?
Last updated September 3, 2026.
The classic signature: pain starting around the belly button that moves to the lower right abdomen over hours and worsens - hurting more with movement, coughing, or pressing, easing slightly with knees pulled up. Appetite loss, nausea, and a temperature commonly join. That worsening right-sided pattern is a same-day, go-to-hospital problem - the appendix can burst. Not everyone reads the textbook: pregnant women, young children, and older people often show milder, slower, or differently-located pain, so lower your threshold with them. Pain that suddenly eases briefly then returns as severe whole-abdomen pain can signal rupture, not recovery. Get assessed before eating or masking pain. Pymander is a free AI doctor, 24/7 by text, and can help you judge the pattern.
What to do
- Track the migration: belly button to lower right over hours is the tell.
- Treat worsening right-sided pain as same-day urgent: hospitals, not wait-and-see.
- Beware the false lull: sudden brief relief followed by whole-belly pain can mean rupture.
- Lower the bar for children, pregnancy, older people: their appendicitis reads atypical.
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