Anal cancer or piles

[arsey23]

Nc for this as it's not the nicest of topics.
Suffered with piles for years. Particularly worse after the brith of my second child. Lots of bleeding and swelling but they do tend to go down with cream and don't tend to cause me too many issues in the way of pain. But because they have come out and gone in so many times I have some lovely leftover skin tags in the area. It's all very embarrassing.

I've seen about 3 different doctors in the past 10 years who all diagnose piles, give me cream/suppositories and send me on my way. But lately I'm worried there could be more. I mean the symptoms of anal cancer are more or less identical - bleeding, pain, lumps, swelling. How can they know it's not that? They've never done any tests or biopsies even though there are many lumps/skin tags in the area.

I woke up this morning with a sore patch of skin in the area which could just be irritation but it made me think shouldn't these things be looked into more? At what point would a doctor look more deeply into something like this and refer for further tests? Because of my age (thirties) and the fact that piles are clearly present they just don't want to consider anything that could be more sinister.

Has anyone got any experience with this?

Bump

Hi, I’m sorry my comment probably isn’t much help but my mother had a very similar experience in the early 1990s, so a long time ago (and she was in her mid-40s so a bit older) but she was fobbed off by her GP that she had piles (same as you, given creams, etc) and when she finally pushed for further tests as she said she KNEW it was something more (she also had a lot of stomach issues/upset stomach etc), it turned out it was a tumour and she did have cancer. She underwent chemo and surgery.
i hope it’s not the same for you but I would urge you to get a second opinion if that’s possible. I was in my early teens when all that was going on so not sure of the ins and outs and unfortunately she’s not around anymore for me to ask but I wish you all the best and hope your fears aren’t proven to be correct. 💙

Do request a second opinion OP. This skin tags can be removed too and that something you could ask for. Explain it’s for hygiene purposes (they will already know they can cause that problem).

Have you ever been to the DRs and specifically mentioned you are concerned that it might be cancer? I'd imagine if you did they would refer you on to the two week wait rather than get it wrong, or at least my GPs do.

I suppose it's your age and the fact they appeared during pregnancy/giving birth that makes it far more likely to be just piles but if you are worried about it specifically make an appointment for it rather than a general one perhaps.

Thank you for replying. I know it's not a pleasant subject. I have brought the issue up before but always been told 'you're too young'. I had some bowel issues at one stage too and had a colonoscopy which came back fine but this was about 5 years ago now.

It's so hard to even see a doctor these days never mind get them to take you seriously. I've been trying to book a smear appointment for about a month, every time I call (usually after being 37th in the queue) I get told to ring back next week as there's only two qualified nurses and they're all booked up. It's a nightmare.

As for the bum issues - the likelihood is it's piles. I know that. Anal cancer is rare and more common in older people. But it isn't impossible and when I'm presenting with the symptoms I don't know why they wouldn't take it more seriously.

I’ve jsut recently been to the doc for this and they think I have an internal pile.. they did the screening on me and it’s came back positive so I’m waiting on a colonoscopy

Positive for what sorry?

The screening for bowel cancer however it only shows there is blood so I need a colonoscopy

Sorry to hear that and hope it goes well for you. Blood can come from piles too so it could be that.
I did have a colonoscopy about 5 years ago but I suppose that's quite a while now.