Hemorrhoids - Internal and External

When a vein around your anus swells up due to stress, it's called a hemorrhoid. Due to its already irritated nature, bowel movements or other stress on it directly can cause discomfort.

Internal Hemorrhoids

When your hemorrhoids are in the anal cavity itself, they are known as internal hemorrhoids. You won't have as many symptoms with internal hemorrhoids as you do with external ones, since they're inside your body and protected from outside irritation. You might not ever know you have a hemorrhoid for a long time if it's internal. If there's blood on your toilet paper or on the bowl after you perform a bowel movement, you may have an internal hemorrhoid. Make sure you consult your physician at the first sign of blood in your stool, just so you can make sure it's not something else that's far more dangerous than internal hemorrhoids.

As soon as you see the symptoms and recognize it, treat it; waiting any longer can lead to more problems down the road. Your internal hemorrhoid might even start becoming external if you wait too long to treat it and it grows; it can become either a prolapsed or strangulated hemorrhoid, which are more serious conditions. When the internal hemorrhoid is pushed out of the anus, it becomes a prolapsed hemorrhoid; if that then experiences constriction due to the sphincter closing, it becomes a strangulated hemorrhoid - either one of these is not pleasant to have. Your discomfort and pain will increase as your hemorrhoid leaves the safety of your anal cavity and is exposed to stimuli that can cause pain. You may not need surgery, as there are other hemorrhoid treatments available.

External Hemorrhoids

You can see external hemorrhoids a lot easier than the internal kind, because you immediately feel the pain and swelling that occurs, and you may be able to see the hemorrhoid on your anus, it feels like a tiny bump near the sphincter. A thrombosed hemorrhoid is when an external hemorrhoid forms a blood clot; these can be much more painful than regular hemorrhoids, and requires quick treatment once you identify it. Once you recognize it, you'll be able to clear it up after a week; until then, however, it'll turn dark and start bleeding occasionally as well, making it potentially look worse than it actually is. You can have a physician remove the thrombosed hemorrhoid if you can no longer stand the pain.

You should always get a full medical checkup no matter what type of hemorrhoid you have. You might be bleeding from the anus because of something other than hemorrhoids, so be sure to get checked up completely. You can treat hemorrhoids easily, once you get over the initial embarrassment.