A Quick Guide to Piles Disease
Many people may have never heard of piles disease but they have heard of hemorrhoids. Piles is just another word for hemorrhoids. When you have hemorrhoids, you have swollen veins in the lower part of your rectum and anus. They are actually quite unpleasant. Sometimes, women who are pregnant develop hemorrhoids because of the extra weight of the baby pressing on the veins. It can also happen if you push too hard when you are having a bowel movement.
Piles disease can have several different symptoms: These include blood during bowel movements, discomfort and pain, intense itching in the anal area, swelling surrounding your anus, and a problem with feces leaking. Piles disease can also cause a lump in the anal region, and sometimes, if you have hemorrhoids and you push too much they can protrude from the anus, which is always very painful.
If you have these symptoms, see a doctor ASAP. Anal bleeding can also be a sign of cancer as well, so never take the risk of not having anal bleeding checked out. You can have external or internal hemorrhoids. Internal hemorrhoids, which stay inside of the rectum, sometimes can be painless. You might just see a few occasional drops of blood if you strain too much. External hemorrhoids are under the skin around the outside of the anus. They too can bleed when you strain and clots can develop which are even more painful. There is usually intense itching as well.
There are many reasons people develop piles disease. Experts think, that for some people, genetics may be involved, although anyone over 50 years of age can be a candidate for hemorrhoids. Contributing factors can include pregnancy, straining during bowel movements, excessive constipation and/or diarrhea, anal intercourse, and obesity, among others.
It is rare to be hospitalized for piles disease, but not impossible. Many people develop what is called a strangulated hemorrhoid. This is when the blood in the vein gets shut off from the rest of the blood supply. Not only is this painful, it can even form gangrene. Another possibility is anemia. If too much blood is lost from the hemorrhoids, your body will not receive enough nutrients and fatigue will set in. If the condition is bad enough, you might need to spend a day or two in the hospital and receive some IV fluids.
A lot of people become very embarrassed about hemorrhoid problems and because of the anus and stools being involved, fail to tell anyone about their discomfort. While it might be hard to talk about piles disease, the consequences of not taking care of the problem can be much worse. Both colon and anal cancer can have some of the same symptoms.
A doctor can often see external hemorrhoids just by looking at your anus. Internal hemorrhoids are often felt during the rectal examination. Sometimes a scope is used to see into the rectum and lower portion of the colon. Depending on your age and symptoms, you doctor may want to do a colonoscopy, which is when the entire colon is scoped.
The treatment for hemorrhoids can be as simple as medication or an injection which will shrink the hemorrhoid. Banding the hemorrhoid is one of the most frequently used procedures. This involves tying it off with a couple of small rubber bands. The hemorrhoid dies and falls off. There is often continued bleeding for a couple days after banding occurs.
The most invasive hemorrhoid treatment is a hemorrhoidectomy, a surgical procedure where the extra tissue causing the bleeding is completely removed. This will cause some post-surgical pain for which you will be given medication. There can also be more complications with surgery than with other procedures.