You should never discount your symptoms, Cecchini said, if you notice blood in your stool, chronic abdominal pain, a change in bowel movements, or unexplained weight loss, it’s important that you tell your doctor.
“It’s very easy in younger individuals to think, ‘Oh, it’s just hemorrhoids,’ or something like that … and it may be, but also those things can coexist,” said Cecchini. “People certainly have hemorrhoids and cancer, or it can be something else completely.”
In general, getting a colonoscopy or another colorectal cancer screening is the best way to lower your risk or catch it in the early stages. You can undergo “screening with colonoscopy or stool-based tests,” Cecchini said. Chat with your doctor to determine the best screening for you.
For most people, screenings start at 45. But if you have any of the symptoms mentioned above or meet certain criteria, you may be eligible for a colonoscopy before 45, Dueker said.
“Anyone with a first-degree relative — mother, father, brother, sister, son or daughter — that has had colon cancer, especially if that person was diagnosed before the age of 50, is going to be at higher risk for colorectal cancer because of that family history, and should speak to their doctor about when they should start getting colonoscopies,” Dueker explained.
If you’ve had inflammatory bowel disease or radiation treatment to the pelvic or abdominal area, or if you have certain genetic syndromes or a personal history of colon cancer, you would also want to get a colonoscopy before 45, Dueker noted.
Suffice to say, it’s important to keep your doctor informed of your medical history and any potential issues you might be experiencing. But while you should take all of this seriously, you also shouldn’t panic.
“All of these symptoms don’t necessarily mean … you have colon cancer,” said Dueker. Instead, they could mean that a colonoscopy is necessary to determine what is going on. And while the cause could be colon cancer or a precancerous polyp, detecting the disease early is the best way to manage it.
“It’s important to catch cancer early through screening or alerting to some of … these symptoms so that we diagnose cancer at an earlier stage, where it’s more treatable and hopefully curable,” Cecchini said. “We still cure the majority of people with this cancer every year.”
This article originally appeared on HuffPost.
