Noticed Blood During Bowel Movements. Painful. Could This Be Hemorrhoids?

Posted on Thu, 24 Oct 2013

Question: Hi. I'm concerned about some blood in my stool. Every time I have a bowel movement there is a lot of blood in the toilet. Bright red blood. My bowel movements are not painful and I'm not pushing or forcing myself to go. I thought it could be hemorrhoids but there is nothing protruding either. Thanks for any help you can provide.

Answered by Dr. Pavan Kumar Gupta (1 hour later)

Brief answer...there can be various causes for it.
Detailed answer....
Hello,
Thanks for the query.
Although the most common cause for a painless fresh blood in stool is haemorrhoids,there can be various other causes also.
Haemorrhoids can be XXXXXXX and external in nature.
It is only external hemorrhoids which protrude outside while XXXXXXX hemorrhoids don't protrude and cause the same type of fresh blood in stool.
The most common cause for hemorrhoids are pregnancy and repeated straining at stool.
There can be other causes for fresh blood in stool like diverticulitis,polyps,inflammatory process of intestines like IBS,IBD,ulcerative colitis,crohn's disease and rarely colon cancer also.
You need to consult a surgeon and get yourself investigated to find the cause.
Investigations most commonly done are sigmoidoscopy and colonoscopy.
Treatment would depend upon finding the cause.
General principal of treatment are..
Plenty of water to drink
Taking more fibre in diet so as to soften your stools
Doing regular exercises which help in treating constipation.
I hope it helps however you may revert to me for any further query.
Best of luck
Thanks

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Above answer was peer-reviewed by : Dr. Chakravarthy Mazumdar