Hi everyone!
So to start off i would like to say that i have pretty bad health anxiety. I always think something is wrong with me. i also started taking zoloft about 5-6 weeks ago. I also was vegan for 8 months but started eating meat and dairy again a few weeks ago. recently ive begun to notice loose stools every morning with mucus and in some of the mucus seems to have blood on them. The blood is bright red. Sometimes i get abdominal cramping/pain, but not every single day. Sometimes i also feel constipated or that my bowel movements dont always feel finished. I read online that this could be Chrons Disease or colon cancer. My twin has IBS, my brother has IBS, my mom has IBS. But i read that IBS never causes blood in the stool. Im a 21 year old female and have always been pretty healthy. Now, im freaking out though. Could i be intolerant to something like gluten or dairy? Im going to make an appointment with my gastro doctor but i just wanted to hear other experiences or advice. Thank you!
i also have been eating TONS of watermelon almost every day since they are in season.
Are you straining during any of these bowel movements? If so I would guess the blood could just be from straining too hard and maybe you have a little tear, that's happened to em a lot.
If you aren't straining, then maybe you have hemorrhoids. They are extremely common and blood on your stools/feeling like the bowel movement isn't finished are very common symptoms of hemorrhoids.
I feel like whenever I read about blood in stools being a sign of cancer it's usually "black tarry stools" meaning the blood is not fresh bc it is coming from bleeding somewhere farther inside your body, so it's dried and become dark. To me red/pink blood on stools then would indicate the blood is new and from somewhere near the end of your bowel track (which is why I'm guessing hemorrhoids).
Hi there,
Sorry to hear your worrying about your health. Considering your family diagnoses you quite possibly have ibs which might be triggered by sudden changes in diet but that won't cause bleeding, that's a separate issue. The two most likely and non-dangerous causes are haemarroids or rectal fissure. You'll know if it's a fissure (cut) because it will sting, burn or otherwise hurt a lot when you pass a stool. If not its probably haemarroids but either way they are very common and you can get topical treatments for these conditions. I know about this because I had a similar freak out a couple of years ago and thought I was dying from colon cancer.... I wasn't... I had a particularly annoying fissure. As philly said you only need to be concerned about cancer or upper gi bleeding if you have black sticky stools.
I hope the zoloft is helpful for you