Results

Cause of your symptoms

Your rectal bleeding is probably from piles caused by your constipation

Advice

Try the treatments outlined below for two weeks.

Treatments

Eat more roughage and if necessary take laxatives to make your stools softer and easier to pass. It is normal to strain a little when passing a motion but too much can cause bleeding. Try careful cleaning around your bottom and if necessary use creams and suppositories for your pile symptoms. A pharmacist can advise on suitable treatments.

What now?

If you get better nothing else needs to be done. However, if your symptoms persist for two more weeks or recur after stopping treatment, see your GP.

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You are more than 50 years old and have rectal bleeding with pile symptoms. You also have a change in bowel habit to going less often and or are passing harder drier stools but you have no abdominal pain.

Additional information if you see your GP

Your GP will probably examine your tummy and back passage and do a blood test. If these are normal you at low risk of having serious bowel disease and it would be reasonable to advise a further period of treat, watch and wait. However, if your symptoms still do not settle completely or recur it is likely you will be referred to a routine hospital clinic for investigations and local treatments to stop the bleeding.

In healthy patients aged 50-70years old, not having previous colonic investigations a single flexible sigmoidoscopy has the added benefit of detecting incidental significant polyps which if removed may prevent a bowel cancer developing in the future - "‘opportunistic screening"