Rectal polyps can be felt during an examination by a doctor. Most often they are discovered when a patient undergoes endoscopy.
A doctor may be able to feel polyps by inserting a gloved finger into the rectum, but usually polyps are discovered when colonoscopy is done to examine the entire large intestine. This complete and reliable examination is done because more than one polyp is often present and any may be cancerous.
Most people with polyps won't be aware of them as they produce no symptoms and are often discovered by accident. However, some larger polyps can cause: a small amount of rectal bleeding (blood in your stool) mucus to be produced when you open your bowels.
Chronic bleeding may lead to iron deficiency anemia, which can make you feel tired and short of breath. Pain. A large colon polyp can block part of your bowel, leading to crampy abdominal pain. Rectal bleeding.
During a colonoscopy, a trained medical professional uses a long, flexible, narrow tube with a light and tiny camera on one end, called a colonoscope, to look inside your rectum and colon. Colonoscopy can show irritated and swollen tissue, ulcers, polyps, and cancer. Virtual colonoscopy.
Stool tests.
Both polyps and colorectal cancers can bleed, and stool tests check for tiny amounts of blood in feces (stool) that cannot be seen visually. (Blood in stool may also indicate the presence of conditions that are not cancer, such as hemorrhoids.)
Pain. Persistent pain in the abdomen usually occurs with a large polyp as it begins to cause an obstruction in the colon.
Common Symptoms of Colon Polyps
Changes in Bowel Movements – Sometimes colon polyps can lead to constipation or diarrhea that persists for longer than a week, as well as general changes in bowel habits.
Stomach polyps usually do not cause symptoms. They are usually found when a patient is being examined for another stomach issue. Larger polyps may cause internal bleeding or abdominal pain. If internal bleeding continues, the patient may become anemic (low iron).
Most polyps grow slowly and take from between 10 and 15 years to become cancerous. Due to this general time frame, most screenings are scheduled every 10 years which gives Colorectal Surgical Associates time to remove any polyps before they become cancerous.
Fatigue can happen if polyps or tumors bleed into the digestive tract, leading to a loss of iron over time and possibly iron-deficiency anemia. A direct side effect of iron-deficiency anemia is that individuals to feel tired and short of breath.
Large polyps can obstruct the bowel and cause abdominal pain or cramping.
Unfortunately, polyps can be easily mistaken for fibroids because they look similar in imaging tests and they can both cause heavy menstrual bleeding, cramping, and abdominal pain.
Colon polyps and diverticulitis have similar symptoms that include: Abdominal pain. Bloating. Constipation.
Symptoms and Signs of Colorectal Polyps
Rectal polyps may be palpable by digital examination. Occasionally, a polyp on a long pedicle may prolapse through the anus.
Raised polyps are well-recognized growths in the colon that gastroenterologists routinely remove before the abnormal tissue might turn into cancer. They are easy to find and easy to remove. But flat polyps are difficult for doctors to detect.
Symptoms of bowel polyps
Bowel polyps do not usually cause any symptoms, so most people with polyps will not know they have them. They're often picked up during screening for bowel cancer. But some larger polyps can cause: a small amount of slime (mucus) or blood in your poo (rectal bleeding)
Most polyps do not cause symptoms. When they do, the most common symptom is bleeding from the rectum. A large polyp may cause cramps, abdominal pain, obstruction, or intussusception.
fatty foods, such as fried foods. red meat, such as beef and pork. processed meat, such as bacon, sausage, hot dogs, and lunch meats.
Inflammatory polyps are often found in inflammatory diseases of the colonic mucosa, such as UC in remission, and they may produce symptoms of pain[2] and obstruction[3], especially giant polyps[4].
They can occur anywhere in the large intestine or rectum, but are more commonly found in the left colon, sigmoid colon, or rectum.
Depending on their size and location in the colon, serrated polyps may become cancerous. Small, serrated polyps in the lower colon, also known as hyperplastic polyps, are rarely malignant. Larger serrated polyps, which are typically flat (sessile), difficult to detect and located in the upper colon, are precancerous.