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What Causes Rectal Bleeding?
Question: I have some rectal blood, with difficulty passing stool. I am probably pushing too hard. The blood is bright red and the stool looks normal.
Brief Answer:
straining likely but if no recent screening, this should be done
Detailed Answer:
HI, thanks for using healthcare magic
Rectal blood can be scary to see for anyone.
It is possible that the rectal blood can be due to straining during a bowel movement as you mentioned , there are also other possible causes.
Bright red blood can be due to hemorrhoids or an anal fissure (tear in the anal region).
If you have a history of hemorrhoids then the straining would have aggravated them and caused bleeding.
Fissures are usually painful.
Other causes of blood in the stool would be diverticular disease, infection, inflammatory bowel disease and cancer of the colon.
Both infection and inflammatory bowel disease would normally have diarrhea however so this leaves diverticular disease and cancer.
Diverticular disease is common in older persons and refers to out pocket/pouches in the bowel.
Though straining is the likely cause, if you did not have a recent colonoscopy (within last 5 to 8 yrs), you should consider having one done to rule out the most serious cause, cancer of the colon.
I hope this helps, feel free to ask any other questions
straining likely but if no recent screening, this should be done
Detailed Answer:
HI, thanks for using healthcare magic
Rectal blood can be scary to see for anyone.
It is possible that the rectal blood can be due to straining during a bowel movement as you mentioned , there are also other possible causes.
Bright red blood can be due to hemorrhoids or an anal fissure (tear in the anal region).
If you have a history of hemorrhoids then the straining would have aggravated them and caused bleeding.
Fissures are usually painful.
Other causes of blood in the stool would be diverticular disease, infection, inflammatory bowel disease and cancer of the colon.
Both infection and inflammatory bowel disease would normally have diarrhea however so this leaves diverticular disease and cancer.
Diverticular disease is common in older persons and refers to out pocket/pouches in the bowel.
Though straining is the likely cause, if you did not have a recent colonoscopy (within last 5 to 8 yrs), you should consider having one done to rule out the most serious cause, cancer of the colon.
I hope this helps, feel free to ask any other questions
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Above answer was peer-reviewed by :
Dr. Chakravarthy Mazumdar
Answered by
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