Side Effects of Gallbladder Removal: Short and Long Term

Most side effects of gallbladder removal are short-lived: soreness, shoulder pain from the surgical gas, nausea, bloating and constipation in the first days and weeks. Over the longer term, a minority of people have loose stools, trouble with rich meals or reflux, and a few develop a problem such as a bile duct stone that needs treatment.

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Gallbladder removal is one of the most common operations in the US [1], and for most people it ends the pain that led to it. Yet almost everyone notices something afterward, whether it is a sore shoulder in the first days, a looser bowel for a few weeks or a meal that sits more heavily than it used to.

It helps to sort those changes by when they happen. Some belong to the operation and fade with healing, some come from the new way bile reaches your intestine, and a few are complications that need attention. This guide takes them in that order.

What Are the Side Effects of Having Your Gallbladder Removed?

The side effects of having your gallbladder removed fall into two groups. In the short term, over days to a few weeks, the most common are pain around the incisions, shoulder pain, nausea, tiredness, bloating, constipation and loose stools after meals [2, 3]. In the long term, over months to years, a minority of people have ongoing diarrhea, difficulty with fatty meals, bile reflux, bile duct stones or persistent pain [3].

• Days to weeks: incision and shoulder pain, nausea, fatigue, bloating, constipation
• Weeks to months: loose stools after eating, rich meals feeling heavy
• Months to years, in a minority: chronic diarrhea, bile reflux, bile duct stones, post-cholecystectomy syndrome

Most people move through the first two stages without lasting trouble. Fats and heavier meals are usually hardest for the first month or so, and most people can then return to their normal eating plan [3].

What Are the Short-Term Side Effects of Gallbladder Removal?

The short-term side effects come mainly from the operation and the anesthetic, and most ease within one to two weeks after keyhole surgery. Our guide to gallbladder removal recovery walks through them week by week.

1. Pain at the incisions and in the shoulder

Soreness around the small incisions is expected, and the belly-button cut is often the most tender. Many people are surprised to feel more pain in the right shoulder or neck than in the abdomen. That comes from the carbon dioxide gas used to inflate the abdomen during keyhole surgery, which irritates the diaphragm until the body absorbs it [4], and it usually eases over several days to a week [2].

2. Nausea, a sore throat and tiredness

Nausea is a common side effect in the first days, partly from pain medicines [3], and a sore throat from the breathing tube is also common [2]. Tiredness can last longer than the pain does, and needing daytime rest for the first week or two is normal.

3. Bloating and gas

Gas pain in the first days is partly a side effect of the gas used during keyhole surgery [3], and that part passes quickly. Some people continue to notice more gas for a few weeks as their digestion adjusts. Our article on gas after gallbladder removal looks at why and what eases it.

4. Constipation

Constipation in the first week is mostly caused by opioid pain medicine and by moving less than usual [5], and it tends to ease once you stop the stronger painkillers. Walking, fluids and a stool softener your care team recommends usually help.

5. Loose stools after eating

Loose stools after meals are common in the first weeks. MedlinePlus notes that they may last four to eight weeks, sometimes longer [2]. In one study diarrhea affected about a quarter of patients a week after surgery and about 6 percent at three months [6], so for most people this is a phase rather than a permanent change.

Is Gallbladder Removal Dangerous?

Gallbladder removal is a common and generally safe operation, but like any surgery it carries risks. The main ones are bleeding, infection, blood clots, injury to the bile duct, nearby blood vessels or bowel, pancreatitis and reactions to anesthesia [7], along with a bile leak [8]. These are complications rather than side effects: they are unusual, and they usually show up in the first days or weeks.

The complication surgeons work hardest to avoid is an injury to the main bile duct, and it has become rare: among Medicare patients having keyhole gallbladder surgery, it fell from 0.19 percent of operations in 2011 to 0.12 percent in 2021 [9]. Bile leaks are somewhat more common, at about 0.5 percent in pooled data from more than 500,000 patients [10], and can announce themselves as pain that grows instead of fading a few days after surgery. Both are reasons to take worsening pain or fever seriously.

What Are the Long-Term Effects of Having a Gallbladder Removed?

Most people have no lasting problems after gallbladder removal. Those who do usually have one of a short list of changes, and each has its own explanation and treatment [3]. Because bile now flows from the liver into the intestine instead of being stored and released with meals [1], most of these long-term effects involve digestion.

1. Diarrhea and urgency

Diarrhea is the most common lasting change. When researchers pooled 21 studies, about 13 percent of people developed new diarrhea after cholecystectomy [11], and it was more likely in people under 50 and in those with a higher body weight [12]. When it becomes chronic, bile acids reaching the colon are a common cause [13]. Our articles on diarrhea after gallbladder removal and how to stop it go into detail.

2. Trouble with fatty meals

Without the gallbladder's meal-timed release, less bile is on hand at the start of a large meal. One study measured bile acid levels in the intestine shortly after a fat-rich meal at about a quarter of those in people with a gallbladder [14]. Fat absorption overall stays normal or close to it [15, 16], so the effect is usually felt as heaviness or fullness after rich meals rather than as malnutrition. Our guide to eating fatty foods without a gallbladder covers how to manage it.

3. Bile reflux and heartburn

Gallbladder removal is a recognized risk factor for bile reflux, in which bile flows up into the stomach and esophagus, causing upper abdominal pain, heartburn, nausea and a bitter taste [17]. Because it does not respond to the same antacid treatments as ordinary acid reflux [17], it is worth naming specifically when you talk to your doctor.

4. Bile duct stones

Stones can still form in, or be left in, the bile ducts, and they are found days to years after surgery in up to 5 percent of patients [18]. They cause pain much like a gallbladder attack, sometimes with fever or jaundice. Our article on gallstones without a gallbladder explains where they come from and how they are removed.

5. Pain that continues or returns

A minority of people continue to have pain, indigestion or other symptoms after surgery, which doctors call post-cholecystectomy syndrome. Estimates of how many people it affects vary with the definition, from about 3 percent in a 2026 pooled analysis [19] to 5 to 30 percent in StatPearls [20]. It is usually a temporary diagnosis that leads to a specific cause [3].

6. Changes in weight

Many people report gaining weight after gallbladder removal, often as they return to foods they had avoided while they were unwell, while others say they lost weight in the early months because of diarrhea or a cautious diet. Our article on weight gain after gallbladder removal looks at what the research shows.

7. Vitamins and your liver

Vitamins A, D, E and K need bile to be absorbed [21], which is why people worry about deficiencies. In a 2026 study that compared the same patients before and after surgery, vitamin D levels and clotting, which depends on vitamin K, did not change [22]. Questions about the liver come up often too, and our article on whether not having a gallbladder affects your liver sets out what is known.

Can Gallbladder Removal Cause Hair Loss, Skin Changes or Headaches?

These three come up often in online communities, and the evidence for each is different.

Hair loss after gallbladder surgery

Hair shedding that starts a couple of months after surgery is usually telogen effluvium, a temporary shift of hair follicles into their resting phase that can follow any physical stress, including an operation, an illness or rapid weight loss [23]. The shedding typically begins about two to three months after the trigger and is usually self-limiting, with hair tending to regain its normal fullness within six to nine months [23, 24]. It is not specific to gallbladder removal. Shedding that continues well beyond six months is worth checking with a doctor, who may look for other causes such as low iron [23].

Itching and skin changes

Itching is the one skin change that needs attention. Together with yellowing of the skin or eyes, dark urine or pale stools, itching can be a sign that bile is backing up because a duct is blocked [25], and that needs prompt care. Acne and rashes are sometimes reported after surgery, but we found no study linking them to gallbladder removal, and hormonal changes, new medicines and stress are more likely explanations.

Headaches after gallbladder removal

Many people mention headaches in the first days after surgery, and they tend to put them down to the anesthetic, broken sleep, not drinking enough or a sudden change in caffeine intake. We found no study that links gallbladder removal to headaches in the long term. Persistent or severe headaches should be assessed like headaches in anyone else.

Are the Side Effects Different for Women?

Women are more likely than men to develop gallstones, and extra estrogen from pregnancy, hormone therapy or birth control pills can raise the risk further [26], so women make up most of the people who have their gallbladder removed. We found little evidence, however, that the side effects themselves differ between women and men. Nor is there evidence that gallbladder removal brings on menopause, so hot flashes or night sweats after surgery are worth discussing with your doctor on their own terms.

What Are the Side Effects of Gallbladder Removal After 2 Years?

By two years after surgery, digestion has usually settled into a stable pattern [6]. Ongoing diarrhea that started soon after the operation may still be present if it has not been treated, but new symptoms at this point are less likely to be caused by the surgery itself. Bile duct stones are the main exception, since they can form years later [18], and new or worsening symptoms after a long settled period deserve a fresh look.

What Helps With the Side Effects of Gallbladder Removal?

Most digestive side effects respond to the same foundations. Mayo Clinic suggests avoiding high-fat, fried and greasy foods at first, eating smaller and more frequent meals, adding soluble fiber slowly and limiting caffeine, dairy and very sweet foods [27]. Our diet after gallbladder removal guide shows how to put that into practice, and the list of foods to avoid covers the usual triggers.

For chronic diarrhea driven by bile acids, a doctor may prescribe a bile acid binder, to which about 79 percent of people with diarrhea after cholecystectomy responded in pooled studies [13]. For heaviness after richer meals, spreading fat across the day comes first, and some people add bile support with their largest meal. Dr.Primal's TUDCA is made for life after gallbladder removal and is taken with meals, when your body calls on bile the most, to support healthy bile flow and fat digestion.

What Are the Warning Signs After Gallbladder Removal?

Some symptoms are not side effects to wait out. Seek care the same day for any of these [3, 2]:

• A fever over 101°F
• Pain that is severe or getting worse
• Persistent nausea or vomiting, or being unable to eat or drink
• Yellowing of your skin or the whites of your eyes
• Dark urine, or light-colored or gray stools

It is also worth seeing a doctor if diarrhea lasts more than four weeks, wakes you at night or comes with weight loss you did not intend [28], or if symptoms are getting worse months after surgery rather than better.

In Summary: Side Effects of Gallbladder Removal

The side effects of gallbladder removal are mostly short-term: incision and shoulder pain, nausea, tiredness, bloating, constipation and loose stools that fade over weeks. A minority of people have longer-term changes, most often diarrhea, along with heaviness after rich meals, bile reflux, bile duct stones or persistent pain, and each of those has a cause that can be looked for and treated. Hair shedding a few months after surgery is common and usually temporary.

If something has not settled, note when it happens and what seems to trigger it, and take that to your doctor. Our short digestion quiz is a quick way to put your symptoms and habits in order before that conversation.

This article is for general education and is not a substitute for advice from your doctor. TUDCA is sold as a dietary supplement. These statements have not been evaluated by the Food and Drug Administration. This product is not intended to diagnose, treat, cure, or prevent any disease.