Nervous I could have Anal Cancer...

Hi All,

I'm A 22 year old gay male who has been having an itchy anus, especially after bowel movements, when walking around on my feet (i have a job that requires me to walk often for 10 hours). After having a bowel movement and performing several wipes, I noticed that there would still be a brown substance on the toilet paper that I presumed to be residual "poop juice" for lack of a better term. There would be this, plus streaks of bright red blood coming from a lump on the outside of my anus (which I presumed to be a hemorrhoid after looking up symptoms). Other symptoms I had would be dampness of my anal region, itching and an overral irritated feeling. the itch was quite bad at times, but Ibprofin did help it.

Anyhow, I thought I'd add more fiber to my diet, try to not to irritate the area, etc. in hopes that my "hemorrhoid" would go down on its own like it was supposed to. This helped during the week when I wasn't walking and was at school, when my symptoms would rarely appear, but on the weekend at work it was a different story.

It got irritating enough at work that I set up a physical exam with a doctor (my first in around 4 years since I hadn't seen one since my pediatrician), and told him I thought I had hemorrhoids, so he took a look. He informed me that in fact it did not look like hemorrhoids, but more warts. i.e. HPV. This made me nervous, and freaked me out. He suggested I go to a dermatologist to get them removed (which I plan to do), but also knew that anal warts normally never produced symptoms like the ones I had (itching, minor bleeding, impact on bowel movements, etc).

I set up a doctor appointment for tomorrow (2/17) in hopes to further explain to him my worries about the warts and my other symptoms, because as I've looked online, it seems the only 2 correlation between these two totally separate things would be anal cancer, which makes me very nervous at my young age. If anyone could offer any suggestions based on their own experience (specifically 29sillygirl), that would be greatly appreciated. I'll let everybody know how the doctor's appointment goes tomorrow!

[ducky406]

Your symptoms still sound like hemorrhoids to me, so perhaps you can ask your dr about a kind of scan such as an anoscopy or sigmoidoscopy which will look either just in the anus or up to the first curve of the bowels. These aren't pleasant but they might better show any hidden internal hemorrhoids, ulcers, etc. then looking alone.

Besides that my only advice is to ask your dr about HPV vaccination. It helps protect against several virus strands that can cause cancer so even if you do have one known form, it might still be worth getting.

Also, out of curiosity, has your dr ruled out pin worms? Anal itching can be a symptom of them and they're pretty easy to get.

[tripwire89]

Well, he told me they were in fact warts, but didn't do much of an exam besides looking at them, etc. Its why I scheduled a follow up appointment for tomorrow, I just would a list of things to bring to the table in order to cover all my bases and leave feeling somewhat answered.

[ducky406]

I just meant it's possible to have both warts and hemorrhoids. The follow up apt is a good idea.

[29sillygirl]

Good morning.  Just caught your post.  You may not look @ MH before doctor's appt. today.  Don't fret if you forget to ask a question or two.

Every doctor knows we come to exams with multiple worries.  Calling his/her nurse or PA after exam is SOP..

Quick advice:  Agree with ducky...if you are a candidate for vaccine..get it!
See a colo/rectal surgeon....he/she has equipment to do a thorough exam of rectum.  Fine to have derm remove warts...maybe HPV can be detected @ these specialists...dunno.  Mine didn't ...even with annual full body checks.

Assume you will be seeing a GP today.  Some of this will be sorted out during visit.  Let us know how it goes....

Best...

[tripwire89]

Yup, Im about to head there in a half an hour. just going to voice my concern about the similarities between my hemorrhoid symptoms and then actually having the HPV warts, because I know there could be a correlation with anal cancer there. I'll request to have a colonoscopy or further exams done, just in case, as well as having the warts removed. I'll let everybody know how it goes.

[tripwire89]

just an update to all:

my GP had me scheduled for a flexible sigmoidoscopy which showed one internal anal wart in my rectum that was removed during the procedure. I'm also undergoing treatment with Aldara for my external anal warts.

He had the internal one biopsied and called with the results yesterday saying he noticed some very small cell changes and wished to examine me further with another flex-sig.

On a plus note, if the lesions are precancerous, at least I can rest easy knowing it was caught extremely early. But he wants to see me after my treatment with the Aldara is done (in about a month) and I think I may be stressed out beyond belief at that point; its all I can think about lately.

Here's to hoping for the best!

[ducky406]

Thanks for the update. Good to know worst case scenario isn't too scary (and that it wasn't all in your head, I hate when dr's make you feel like that). Hopefully the aldara clears the rest up well. Good luck!

[Laserbehandling]

Good luck...

[01maira]

dnt use toilet paper.often as it irritates it. better for you to wash it with water as you don't know that whether after wiping if something is left at your anus.
get you a good check up also.