What does blood in the stool mean?
Bright red blood on the paper or coating the stool is most often hemorrhoids or a small tear, especially with constipation. Painful but rarely dangerous.
It still always deserves a proper look at least once, because bowel cancers bleed the same color. Dark, tarry, sticky stool signals bleeding higher up and needs urgent review.
Age 45 and above, or with family history, bleeding is the prompt to get the screening you may have been postponing. One examination settles what months of worrying cannot.
Source: NHS, bleeding from the bottom
See a doctor promptly if
- Blood in the stool, or black tarry stools, at any age
- A persistent change in bowel habit lasting three weeks or more
- Unintentional weight loss, or new iron deficiency anemia without an obvious cause
- Persistent abdominal pain or a lump in the abdomen
See what is due at your age1 min, free, nothing to installAge and sex decide most of a screening schedule, and this lists the ones people forget.
Answered by the AskDoc Medical Team · Medically reviewed under our Medical Director, MBBS · How we review
Unglamorous and well proven
Daily psyllium helps constipation, modestly lowers cholesterol, and steadies blood sugar after meals. Start small and drink water with it.
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