Blood in feces? PLEASE HELP

[Mariano_Guevara]

Hi, I'm a 23 year old male from Peru. Yesterday, after being in the toilet for around 20-30 minutes (I like to take my time), I noticed that the area surrounding my stools was a bright red (the stools itself were normal and I felt no pain). I got very upset and went to see the doctor in my office who suggested for me to go to the gastro and get a colonoscopy. Later I remembered that I had eaten a considerable amount of beetroot the previous day. I've heard that eating beetroot can turn your stools and/or urine red, but the thing is that my stools were brown, but the toilet bowl area around the stools were red. I've been to the bathroom about 4-5 times since that time, and every time the color of my stools and the surrounding area has been normal which gives me some peace of mind. I've spoken to 2 doctors since then and they both told me that it's normal after eating beetroot, but I'm still a bit worried. Any thoughts on this? I should mention that there is no cancer history in my family.

[beentrying2quit]

You could have internal hemorioids that have opened.  If you have itching in that area that would be a good sign hemoroids is what you are dealing with.

[Mariano_Guevara]

Thank you so much for this answer, it puts my mind at ease. Indeed, I was told before that I'm way too young to have colon cancer, specially since I don't have cancer history in my family and I lead a rather healthy lifestile, but I'm a bit paranoic when it comes to cancer.

Oh well, it must've been the beetroot then. I'm glad it didn't reappear.

Thanks so much again

[Morecambe]

Hi - you are too young to suffer from the more sinister intestinal diseases.  Cancer etc normally only arises in people over ~40+.

If the problem recurs, a colonoscopy is a very compresensive test and can provide maximum reassurance.

Maybe next time, take a sample of the red water in the toilet bowl and perhaps the doctor can test for blood - or, by its absence, conclude that the colouration is caused by beetroot dye.

regards
Morecambe