Positive online bought fit test

[Ramina]

Ok I’m spiralling as always. I have health anxiety so this is just wonderful 😞 i’m 53 and have yet to receive my bowel cancer screening fit test. I’ve rang the NHS bowel cancer screening line and they said due to my year of birth i’ll be the last phase of testing. Well me being me decided not to wait and buy a test online! Well surprise surprise it’s positive 😩😩 I suffer with piles and a fissure so I’m praying thats all it is. The line was very faint but it was definitely there. Anyone had a positive fit test and it was ok? Are the nhs ones better, more accurate? Oh i wished i had just bloody waited for the NHS one.

It's almost certainly your piles. But make a GP appointment, explain you had a positive home test, and they'll organise an NHS one.

I have had 3 positive fit tests and all was well. Very high chance it is your piles.

Last year I had two positive fit tests. I had two colonoscopies, one was a pillcam I swallowed and the other one the traditional way. Both came back with nothing to report. I do have fissures and piles and still bleed so I think blood must have gotten onto the tests as I was actively bleeding both times and I thought I'd mad sure no blood was on the stool at the time but it only needs a miniscule amount to show up. So the most likely situation is it's your piles or fissures making the rest positive. Whatever the best thing is obviously goto the doctor for them to check you over. I'm sorry I know how worrying it is xxx

Oh I'm also 53 xx

Screening FIT tests (sent in post as BCSP) are only called positive at 80 or 120ug blood per g of poo (depending on where in uk you live). This is because they are only for people without symptoms of concern.

The FIT tests you buy, or get from a GP because you have symptoms of concern (change in bowel habit, abdo pain, blood in poo, anaemia, weight loss etc) are ‘positive’ at 10ug blood per g poo. This is to minimise the number of missed cancers in people with symptoms (who are more likely to have cancer than those who don’t). On the flip side it means more people without any cause for concern are also subjected to colonoscopy etc for tiny traces of blood in poo.

Best to have a chat with GP, discuss any symptoms and get a proper FIT test, rather than the supermarket positive:negative test.