Bleeding out the back door…1
"It's scary to see blood on the toilet paper after you wiped following a bowel movement, and even more alarming when you see blood mixed with your stools."
-- Lorra Garrick2
I considered leading with, Having a bloody bum, but in the end that covers more territory than the term itself does, not to mention some have more territory to cover than others. Now, back to the topic, hematochezia, or haematochezia, is medical terminology referring to the passage of fresh blood in the stool with origins from the lower gastrointestinal tract. It is commonly associated with inflammatory bowel disease (including ulcerative colitis and Crohn's disease), hemorrhoids, and diverticulosis in adults and young adults; arteriovenous malformation and colorectal cancer in older adults; and necrotizing enterocolitis and midgut volvulus in neonates and children. Other possible causes include intussusception, other ulcers such as in peptic ulcer disease, anal fissures, rectal varices, Salmonellosis, Shigellosis, dysentery, angiodysplasia, and radiation proctitis, amongst other things (such as menstruation and anal trauma). Hopefully, it's never a combination of any (or all!) of the above or others not mentioned here.
This doesn't refer to red-colored stools caused by foods such as Red Velvet cake, beetroot, blackberries, or dragon fruit. For more information on that, see beeturia or pseudohematuria.
And now for a word to the wise from atop a soapbox: It is scary. Fear, accompanied and followed by Shame delayed mine, and many others, diagnoses. If the amount of blood present would concern any of those that love you, or would cause a hypochondriac to pass out, see a doctor. Well, screw that, if there is any discernible blood in one's stool, see a doctor. Doesn't matter if you don't have primary care physician, or even insurance. There are ways to get seen, and remember that it is better to be seen than viewed, by the way. With colon cancer being a leading type of cancer and cancer-related deaths, there is no rational reason to delay, especially considering patients so diagnosed are getting younger. Screening is now being recommended starting at 45 years of age, and even younger with a family history of such. Diagnosis, treatment, and prognosis may very well be easier and result in better outcomes, perhaps even avoiding phrases such as fungating, infiltrative and ulcerated. And for those with a prostate, while we're in the neighborhood, procrastination and proctology are not a perfect pairing by any means as prostate cancer is no joke, either. From experience, I know all this may fall on deaf ears, but I feel the need to try. I could have potentially been diagnosed six or so years ago in hindsight. Even back on May 3, 2024, had I not chosen to believe a nurse when they mentioned that hemorrhoids were a probable cause, it might have made a world of difference. At the least, my iron deficiency anemia wouldn't have progressed to the point it did. This isn't something I can afford to dwell on, though, as I'm here now and can't afford to spend the energy on looking back as I need it to move forward and beat this. You don't have to follow my example in the fear, blame, and shame game, or even in playing coulda, shoulda, woulda. Please and, if you do, stop smoking.
A small amount of the time it can be synonymous with melena, aka melaena, even though melena is predominately in reference to black, tarry blood in the stool from an upper gastrointestinal bleed. Rectorrhagia, meanwhile, is rectal bleeding without defecation, bright red and without stool. Even though the phrase, bright red blood per rectum, is missing from my medical records, I believe rectorrhagia happens more often with me than does having visible blood in my stool.
1This is not to be confused with bleeding out out the back door, which is a whole 'nother level of medical emergency.
2: https://scarysymptoms.com/2018/08/hemorrhoid-blood-vs-colon-cancer-blood-is-there-a-difference/