When you didn't know it was a fissure did you think you had bowel cancer?

Yes, for a minute. I had lost about 20lbs over a month. That coupled with the bleeding made my doctor ask “do you have colon cancer in your family?” That freaked me and my family out! I was referred to a colonoscopist and they only found one small benign polyp. Now I am working with the right doctor and getting the right treatment (hopefully). I wish I had been set on the right path in the first place because not only did it add 8 weeks of debilitating, excruciating pain, but I believe the colonoscopy itself made the problem worse.

The main symptoms of bowel cancer or colon cancerare bleeding from the bottom or blood in your poo, a change in your bowel habit, pain in your abdomen. While the main symptom of anal fissure is usually a sudden and severe, sharp pain in or around the anus which can travel up into the back passage (rectum) and last for several seconds. So, both the conditions colon cancer and anal fissure have different symptoms and even the causes also differ.

My first concern was anal cancer… and although I know I have a fissure, it’s still in the back of my mind. Maybe it’s the way skin tags can be so weird. CRS looked twice now and brushed off my mention of anal cancer secondary to HPV both times. I was diagnosed with HPV as a young person and it has been undetectable according to my gyn at least the past 15 years.