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Symptoms Beginning With B
26 symptoms in this guide begin with the letter B. Every name links to a plain-language page covering what the symptom can feel like, the conditions it can be associated with, its red flags, and what a clinician may do.
A B C D E F G H I J K L M N O P R S T U V W
| Symptom | Category | What it can feel like |
|---|---|---|
| Baby not feeding well | Children | A baby not feeding well means taking much less milk than usual, refusing feeds, feeding weakly or falling asleep at the breast or bottle. In young babies, feeding is the… |
| Baby reflux | Children | A baby bringing up a lot of milk (infant reflux) means milk returning effortlessly after feeds — possets, or larger amounts — because the valve at the top of the stomach… |
| Back pain | Muscles & Joints | Back pain is pain in the back — most often the lower back — ranging from a dull ache after gardening to pain that stops you standing straight. It is one of the commonest… |
| Bad breath (halitosis) | Head & Senses | Bad breath is an unpleasant odour from the mouth that persists beyond the usual morning breath. Most of it originates in the mouth itself — bacteria breaking down food… |
| Bedwetting | Children | Bedwetting (nocturnal enuresis) means involuntary wetting during sleep in a child old enough to be expected dry — after about age five. It is very common (roughly one in… |
| Being unable to pass urine | Urinary | Being unable to pass urine at all (acute retention) means wanting to go but being unable to, with a full, increasingly painful bladder. It is an emergency that needs… |
| Black stools | Digestive | Black stools that are tarry and sticky (called melaena) usually mean blood has been digested during its passage through the gut, pointing to bleeding in the stomach or… |
| Bleeding after sex | Women's Health | Bleeding after sex (postcoital bleeding) means vaginal bleeding that follows intercourse, from spotting to a heavier loss. The bleeding source is usually the cervix —… |
| Bleeding after the menopause | Women's Health | Bleeding after the menopause means any vaginal bleeding occurring a year or more after your last period. It should never be dismissed as 'one last period' — it always… |
| Bleeding between periods | Women's Health | Bleeding between periods means any vaginal bleeding outside your normal period — spotting after sex aside (which has its own page), mid-cycle spots, or bleeding at… |
| Bleeding gums | Head & Senses | Bleeding gums means the gums bleed on brushing, flossing or eating, and look red or puffy rather than pale pink and firm. It is usually a sign of gum inflammation… |
| Bloating | Digestive | Bloating is the feeling — and often the visible fact — of a full, tight, swollen abdomen, usually from gas in the bowel or heightened sensitivity to normal amounts of… |
| Blocked ear feeling | Head & Senses | A blocked ear feeling is a sense of fullness, pressure or muffled hearing in one or both ears, as if you are underwater or still descending in a plane. It reflects… |
| Blocked or runny nose | Head & Senses | A blocked or runny nose means the nasal lining is swollen or producing excess mucus — breathing through the nose feels obstructed, and there may be sneezing, reduced… |
| Blood in semen | Men's Health | Blood in semen (haematospermia) means semen that appears pink, red or brown. It is alarming to see but most often benign and self-limiting — a small blood vessel… |
| Blood in the stool | Digestive | Blood in the stool means seeing red blood on the paper, in the pan or mixed with the stool, or passing black, tarry stools (which suggests bleeding higher up). Any… |
| Blood in the urine | Urinary | Blood in the urine can be visible — pink, red or cola-coloured urine — or microscopic, found only on testing. Either way it always deserves assessment: bleeding can come… |
| Blue or pale lips | Chest & Heart | Blue or pale lips — a bluish tinge to the lips, tongue or fingertips — can mean the blood is carrying less oxygen than it should. It is called cyanosis, and new blueness… |
| Blurred vision | Head & Senses | Blurred vision means the world looks out of focus — in one eye or both, for near, distance or everything, arriving gradually or suddenly. Because the causes range from… |
| Brain fog | Mind & Sleep | Brain fog is the subjective sense of slowed, cloudy thinking — words on the tip of the tongue, losing threads mid-task, mental effort for things that used to be… |
| Breast lump | Women's Health | A breast lump is any new lump, thickening or area of firmness in the breast that feels different from the rest of the breast and from the other side. Most breast lumps… |
| Breast pain | Women's Health | Breast pain (mastalgia) is aching, tenderness, heaviness or shooting pains in one or both breasts. Pain that follows the menstrual cycle — building before a period and… |
| Breast swelling in men | Men's Health | Breast swelling in men (gynaecomastia) is growth of glandular breast tissue in one or both breasts — a rubbery disc under the nipple — distinct from fat alone (which… |
| Breathlessness | Lungs & Breathing | Breathlessness is the uncomfortable feeling of not being able to get enough air — breathing faster, shallower or with more effort than the moment calls for. Everyone is… |
| Bringing up phlegm | Lungs & Breathing | Bringing up phlegm means coughing up mucus from the chest — clear, white, yellow, green or blood-streaked. Some phlegm with a chest infection is normal; producing phlegm… |
| Burning feet | Brain & Nerves | Burning feet means a hot, burning or prickling pain in the soles, often worse at night and in bed, sometimes with tingling or numbness. It is a classic small-nerve-fibre… |
Please note: This page is educational information about a symptom. A symptom alone cannot diagnose any condition, and the causes listed here are possibilities, not a diagnosis. If you are worried about a symptom — especially one that is new, severe, getting worse or not going away — please see your own clinician, who can examine you and arrange tests. In an emergency, call your local emergency number.