As the saying goes, “ten people nine hemorrhoids”, due to the prevalence of hemorrhoids, resulting in a lot of people for the perception of hemorrhoids, stays in as long as the blood when the stool, are uniformly according to hemorrhoids treatment. The blood is the body’s early warning signals to you, may be hemorrhoids, but also may be some other changes have taken place. This includes diseases that are closer to the hemorrhoid lesions and also have similar symptoms, such as rectal and colon related diseases. Many times individuals have no way to distinguish the subtle differences between them, and they are easily overlooked or treated incorrectly, so once blood in the stool occurs, it is recommended to consult a doctor in a timely manner. (1) Rectal Cancer Rectal Cancer Schematic Diagram The rectum is close to the anus, and there may be no obvious symptoms in early stage of rectal cancer, only when defecation leads to tumor rupture and bleeding will appear obvious abnormality, and at this time, the patient will have blood in the stool, which is similar to the symptom of hemorrhoids. If patients do not pay attention to it, thinking that it is just hemorrhoids and treating it according to the treatment of hemorrhoids, it may lead to the delay of the condition, affecting the prognosis of the patients and even endangering their lives, which needs to be identified in time. (2) Proctitis Proctitis is an inflammatory disease that occurs in the rectal area, which may be caused by foreign body injury, infection, irrational use of antibiotics, inflammatory bowel disease or radiotherapy. Common symptoms of patients include rectal bleeding, mucus stools, and pain and discomfort in the rectal area. Although some of the symptoms are similar to those of hemorrhoids, it is still possible to make a distinction. (3) Colorectal Cancer Colorectal Cancer Schematic Diagram Colorectal cancer has different lesions and different symptoms. If the patient has left colon cancer, it will usually manifest as blood in stool, diarrhea, abdominal distension and other discomforts, which is similar to hemorrhoids to a certain extent. If the patient suspects that he/she is not suffering from hemorrhoids, but is unable to accurately judge for himself/herself, he/she is advised to seek professional doctor’s help in time. But some of the unique symptoms of other diseases, can also help us to make some preliminary judgments, remember to look back after the poop, self-check the stool properties, don’t mind! (1) Change of stool habit in colon cancer patients The right half of colon cancer patients may show early thin feces with pus and blood, increased frequency of defecation, and anemia may appear in serious cases. When the tumor volume continues to increase and affects the passage of feces, alternating diarrhea and constipation may occur. On the other hand, patients with left hemi-colon cancer mostly show difficulty in defecation, which keeps worsening with the progression of the disease. If the cancer is in a low position, there may also be poor defecation and a feeling of urgency and heaviness. (2) Stool deformation Normal stool shape should be banana-shaped. If patients have other diseases besides hemorrhoids, such as rectal cancer or rectal polyps, the shape of stool may change, for example, a groove may appear in the middle of stool. (3) Specific Symptoms If the blood in stool is caused by diseases other than hemorrhoids, the patient may also have other specific discomfort symptoms, for example, the patient with proctitis will have abdominal pain, abdominal distension, and if the bleeding time is relatively long, the patient may also have the symptom of anemia. In the late stage of rectal cancer and colon cancer, patients may suffer from weight loss or emaciation. In addition to the above specific symptoms that can simply distinguish different diseases, clinically you can also do anorectal fingerprinting, proctoscopy, electronic colonoscopy and other examinations to clarify the specific disease. Never take for granted to label themselves as “hemorrhoids”, blood in the stool should not be overly panicked, found that the disease to do early treatment, but also can achieve the desired treatment and prognosis.