AIBU to warn you re piles?

[Glitteryone]

Okay I can’t believe I’m writing this (thank god this forum is anonymous) but I think it needs to be said as a warning to others.

For approximately 4 years I have been tortured with an itchy bottom. I mean it would itch so bad that I was regularly in tears! It was like a gnawing, burning itching that I can’t even really describe.

Recently the itch moved into my vagina and my god, it was HELL on a daily basis when they both started! I’d spend my days and nights violently scratching both (gross I know, but my hands were always covered and I scrubbed them with antibacterial handwash after everytime).

My doctor told me it was piles and I done the usual - anusol, preparation h, etc however nothing gave me relief at all.

A few days ago my 7 year old started complaining of a sore itchy bum and we had 2 nights with barely any sleep because of it. On the third night she said it was her ‘front bum’ now too, so I asked to have a look and to my horror there was a threadworm on her 🤢😭

Basically what this tells me is that I have had these disgusting things for years and I have infected my poor daughter!

The whole house has been dosed with Vorex and everywhere bleached to within an inch of its life!

I have spent the last few days in between cleaning and wanting to cry, googling threadworms and it seems that they can be transmitted to others extremely easily and also a lot of people don’t realise they have them.

I think more awareness needs to be made of these. Schools are very good at sending home information about nits, I can’t understand why more information isn’t available on worms (I knew nothing about them until this).

Itchy bottoms are so common amongst adults and kids alike and I think when it’s adults it’s easily wrote off as piles and with kids we usually just put it down to them not cleaning themselves properly!

AIBU to warn mumsnet of these disgusting parasites?

So not a warning about piles at all

I’m amazed your first thought wasn’t worms. It was my first thought as soon as you said itchy bum. Didn’t you google? absolutely shocked your GP didn’t suggest worms! that’s really poor.

Most people know about itchy bums= worms. I don’t really think this warning is necessary.

Thanks guys for answering!

If I had itchy bum my first thought would be worms, especially if that itch spreads to your front bottom. Horrid things. Piles hurt from what I've experienced.

If the itch doesn’t go after threadworm medicine try canesten hydrocortisone.

My kids have had threadworms though. It’s pretty common and although gross, just one of those joys you find out about when you have kids. I was discussing it with some mum friends last night over a curry!

In the grand scheme of things op this is something and nothing. Very treatable be glad this is all you have !

I wonder how people are so clear on where they’ve caught worms from. Pets, girls at school whose parents didn’t treat her...
kids just get worms, from each other, all the time!

40% of primary aged children have them at any given time though many won't have symptoms.

I think nearly all parents know about threadworms don't they? Easily spread but easily treated.

Piles throb imv, don't itch

I encounter people with hideous end of life illnesses through my work so frankly if you just have worms treatable with otc medicine happy days!

How long does the treatment last (in the cupboard)?

Really common and easy to treat. Nothing to feel awful about.

WTF

Oh my goodness - 4 years? I was begging the chenist for Ovex after 2 days.

I'd have immediately thought threadworms, too. And it's not that big a deal. One ovex tablet and they're gone in 24 hours. Repeat two weeks later, then you can forget about them.
Far easier to deal with than nits

Unlike most people in this thread I'm not suprised you didn't know about them if you'd not had them growing up, I've never heard anyone I know talk about them either.

Try not to be so hard on yourself OP, I had worms several times as a child and it doesn't have any long lasting effects, your daughter will be fine she just needs medication. At least she will know what to look out for as an adult too if she is experiencing this now.

As for yourself, I'd be relieved at finally finding out what has been causing you such distress for the last 4 years! And as mentioned it's easy to treat so with medication you should be back to your normal self very soon

Boots own version of Ovex is the same but cheaper.

If any one complains of an itchy bottom I just dose everyone!

I think your doctor is rubbish tbh. Did they not do a physical examination and look at the ‘piles’? Surely if they did that, they would have seen you didn’t actually have piles and move their investigations further to what else could be causing the itching?

This has just made my arse cringe to fuck. I knew they existed but I’ve never had to deal with them. Hell on!

I give us all a family dose of ovex (they even have a special family pack for the purpose!) at the end of each school term.

I work with children and have young children, so it is basically a maintenance routine!

Any itchy bot in this house and tablets were given to all. Can still see dh's face as he chewed and managed a "this is worse than why you told me I needed it".

Anybody else now have an unapeakably itchy bum? I do.

Piles op. More hot and throbby and can hang down like tiny bunches of grapes. They don't wiggle in the same way and are a little more complex to dispatch. Still worth it though.

DD went through a phase of picking them up at school and getting reinfected time and time again. Was a real pain as the whole family had to be treated and everything washed.
I spoke to school expecting them to send out the same text messages they do when a child has head lice and they wouldn’t do it. The Head seemed embarrassed just talking about it! I thought it was a shocking response to a standard problem. All it takes is one child who doesn’t wash they hands to keep infecting the entire class time and time again.

Worms in animals expert here (it's my job). Human threadworms are not zoonotic, you can catch some types of worm from animals but not threadworm. On the whole parasites don't survive in different species (there are exceptions, this is not one).

Their lifecycle is that eggs are ingested, they grow to adults inside you and the adult female travels at night to lay her eggs just outside your anus. She secretes a glue-like substance which acts to both glue them on and irritates you, so that you itch. Some of the eggs hatch and travel back inside you. Some eggs are transferred to your fingernails, bedlinen, knickers, clothes etc when you itch and can survive for up to 2 weeks. If somebody touches a surface where pinworm eggs are deposited and later puts their hand to their mouth (eg changes a bed and later eats a sandwich) that's how the infestation spreads.

The reason some mumsnetters go on a cleaning spree is to try to break that cycle of eggs being transferred. Wearing knickers and gloves at night can help, as can putting a blob of vaseline on your anus (eggs can't irritate skin and worms can't wriggle through it).

There. All you never thought you need to know about threadworms.

A big tip esp with children, when diagnosed and treated, make sure you scrub under finger nails, eggs lodge there after scratching, esp at night, when the child may not be aware of scratching. Scrupulous finger nails care until symptoms are gone and condition treated.

I give us all a family dose of ovex (they even have a special family pack for the purpose!) at the end of each school term

Isn't that just a waste of money, the treatments aren't for prevention, afaik if you don't have them there's nothing to cure so any treatment is unnecessary

ive had itchy bum i thoought it was piles prob wormsnow ew do you just ask for it in the chemist?