Hello,

Hope this isn't too disgusting but Im looking for advice. I am a 22 year old female and I find this topic very hard to bring up to my GP. I usually open my bowels every other day or sometimes in 3 days times, which has been a norm for me since I was young.  It’s normal for me to have a rectal bleeding everytime i have a bowel movement, where i find streaks of bright red blood on the toilet paper and my rectum being swollen and painful. I always though it is normal for the bleeding to occur since I usually pass hard stools and also this has been an on-going thing for me. 

Today I open my bowels and as usual it was painful (Type 2 - bristol stool chart) and hard to pass. I always open my bowel in squat position to help me pass it. I was aware for a long time that there’s a lump in my anus. However today i had a good look of it through the mirror and i can see it’s very swollen and red. It feels about the size of pea maybe, is under the skin and potruding from the left rectum wall. It definitely protrudes out more when I strain and have a bowel movement or go into a squat position.

I have been ignoring this for a long time and figured probably this is a piles ? or something. But I am not so sure... Looking forward to your reply.

thank you.