What are some common causes for blood in your stool?

Question

Dr. Dean Xerras, MD · Answer

Hey, there. I just wanted to talk a little bit about blood in the stool. Certainly, when you see it, it's scary. And, you know, the first thing you need to kind of consider is when you see something that's red in the stool, is it blood? Sometimes you can see red stool and it's from diet. Sometimes you can eat beets and they can actually cause your stool to look like there's blood in it. So you want to make sure that it is blood. There are tests you can buy to kind of confirm that in the pharmacy. Certainly, when you see red stool or something that you think is blood, give a call to your doctor. They need to evaluate you. But the most common cause of blood in the stool, actual blood in the stool would be a hemorrhoidal bleed. So when you have hemorrhoids, it's a dilated vein in the in the anus or the rectum, they get dilated from increased pressure, increased intraluminal pressure in the colon. Sometimes that's related to dietary changes from you know decreased fiber content. So when you're constipated, you kind of push that vein to kind of get swollen. It's called a hemorrhoid and it's the most common cause of blood in the stool. Other causes would be infection. You can get an infectious diarrheal illness that can cause blood in the stool. That's one other relatively common cause. And then another cause, but not as common, would be cancer. So anytime there's blood in the stool, you need to go give your doctor a call. They need to do some tests to evaluate you. But by far the most common cause of blood in the stool would be a hemorrhoid. Thanks for the question.

Dr. Yevgenia Pashinsky, MD · Answer

So this question is about rectal bleeding, blood in the stool, and the causes that could be responsible for this happening. So completely agree with Dr. Dean on the main takeaway here being that any blood in the stool, whether you're seeing it, whether you think you're seeing it, warrants an evaluation by your doctor. Obviously, a gastroenterologist would be great, but if you don't have one, seeing a primary care is a great place to start because they could easily diagnose a lot of the disorders and start your work up. The most common cause of blood in the stool that is painless in particular would be hemorrhoidal bleeding. So hemorrhoids are very benign entities. They're normal structures of your anal canal that could get swollen, angry, and irritated, and do things like bleed, itch, swell, et cetera. They don't cause anything beyond that, but can cause a lot of scary bathroom trips. The other things on the differential diagnosis that we consider, you know, most worrisome of course is colon cancer or rectal cancer, which is why a distinction between the very benign and the not so benign is very important by your doctor. Additionally, there could be bleeding from diverticular, which are little pockets of the colon that are more common in older individuals, as well as inflammatory bowel disease such as Crohn's, ulcerative colitis. So the history as to what is going on in addition to the bleeding will be very important to understanding what's going on. Definitely see your doctor if any blood in the stool is noted.

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"What are some common causes for blood in your stool?"