Amy Schumer, Kathy Griffin talk colonoscopy complications. Are they common?

Mary Walrath-Holdridge, USA TODAYWed, May 27, 2026 at 10:48 PM UTC

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Should you be worried about colonoscopy complications? If you've been keeping up with some of comedy's most famous women recently, you may have questions about the standard screening.

Comedian Amy Schumer first started a buzz online after she mentioned the procedure in a chat with "Not Skinny But Not Fat" host Amanda Hirsch during a Dear Media event on May 17.

"I actually had kind of a botched colonoscopy, so I'm not feeling very sexual," she told Hirsch.

A few weeks later, fellow comedy icon Kathy Griffin shared a post to her Instagram about her own less-than-ideal experience, saying she had been admitted to the hospital overnight after "complications."

"I spent the night in the hospital because I had complications from my colonoscopy. I know, I know, very sexy. But I am home now with the doggies where I belong," she wrote. Comments beneath the post reflected many fans' anxieties over the routine screening.

Schumer did not further clarify what she meant by "botched" and what complications, if any, she suffered. A spokesperson for the comedian did not respond to USA TODAY's request for comment. The story is much the same with Griffin, who offered only the vague post about "complications." A spokesperson for Griffin declined to comment when contacted by USA TODAY.

While it's unclear exactly what Schumer and Griffin meant, experts told USA TODAY that one thing is for sure: The benefits outweigh the risks.

What is a colonoscopy?

A coloscopy is an examination of the large intestine (colon) and rectum, generally used to screen for cancers, polyps (growths), or inflammatory bowel disease. It is considered a standard screening that is recommended regularly for all people over a certain age.

The procedure is typically done under sedation and lasts only 15 to 20 minutes. It is performed using an endoscope − a thin, flexible tube with a camera and light source that is inserted into the rectum. It requires preparations that entail drinking a fluid that helps empty the colon and limiting food intake.

Experts have begun recommending routine colonoscopies to people around the age of 45, instead of 50. Part of this is a concerning uptick in colorectal cancers noted amongst young people in the last few decades.

"We used to think of this disease as a disease of older patients. That's just not true any longer," Dr. Kashif Khan, head of gastroenterology at Houston Methodist, told USA TODAY. "We're seeing colon cancer in younger patients. The highest risk of colon cancer is now starting to develop in our youngest population."

Colonoscopies are performed using a thin, flexible tube with a camera. They generally last about 15-20 minutes.Colonoscopy complications are exceedingly rare

While most people don't necessarily look forward to a colonoscopy, the risk of complications is rare, Dr. Chad Spangler, gastroenterologist at GI Partners of Illinois, told USA TODAY.

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"The overall complication percentile risk is less than 1% overall," he said. "And when you break that down, it's even smaller."

Regular, diagnostic colonoscopies have "exceedingly small" chances of resulting in side effects, much less complications, Spangler said. A negative reaction to anesthesia happens only about 0.2% of the time and most people should feel like "nothing happened" when they wake up from the procedure.

The chances of major complications, like perforation (creating a hole in the wall of the colon), are closer to 0.04% to 0.1%, he said. When removing polyps, or growths, from the colon, there is a risk of excess bleeding, but that clocks in at about 0.1% to 0.2% chance.

"The benefits of screening, including prevention of colorectal cancer via polyp removal, substantially outweigh the risks based on population studies," said Spangler. "That's undoubted."

The most likely reasons someone may be admitted to the hospital or observed by doctors after a colonoscopy would be waking up from sedation too slowly, extra bleeding or pain, he added. But even that would be precautionary in most cases.

Like all procedures, some people are at higher risk, said Khan. Those at highest risk are people who have had big abdominal surgeries, including older women who have had open hysterectomies (which were once more common than the less invasive ones of today) and people over the age of 70. In those cases, he said, a medical team may choose not to complete the procedure if the risk of perforation is too high.

"But even that risk is less than a 1% chance in reality," he said.

Benefits outweigh the (unlikely) risks

Even the unpleasantness associated with the procedure and prep has been reduced in the last decade, both Spangler and Kashif explained. While you once had to drink 4 liters of prep fluid all at once, it is now given at about half the dose and can be split between the night before and the morning of the procedure. Dietary restrictions are also now generally limited to only one day before the screening, as opposed to multiple.

"I tell people my expectation is that they wake up like nothing happened," said Spangler. "And I tell them you can stop and eat on the way home or do whatever you want to do. They can go about their normal day."

No matter which way you slice it, the benefits of getting screened far outweigh the risks, statistically and otherwise. A delay can be the difference between a small, easy-to-remove polyp and advanced cancer, said Kashif.

"Delaying (screening) allows forming polyps to turn into colon cancer," he said. "And then in the unfortunate scenario that you have colon cancer, the delay in the diagnosis allows for progression of that tumor and it becomes more difficult to treat."

"(Colon cancer) is absolutely a preventable cancer, which we can't say about most other cancers in the body," said Spangler. "Nobody should be dying of colon cancer in today's world."

This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: Amy Schumer talks about 'botched' colonoscopy. Are complications common?

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