bottoms up: piles and other problems
by Jenny Bryan
Husband and wife, Jean and Fred, had piles for most of their lives, but were too embarrassed to seek help. Jean managed with creams and ointments and, on the advice of a doctor when he was in the forces, Fred just pushed his piles back inside his rectum when they popped out.
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'All through my life, when they've got inflamed, I've just pushed them back. I've never plucked up courage to have a look at them and, when it first happened, I didn't want to touch them,' Fred recalls.
Piles (or haemorrhoids) are swollen veins near the anus – the opening of the back passage, or rectum, from which faeces are expelled. They may stay inside the anus or, like Fred's, they may pop out, usually after a bowel movement. When they are painless and tucked away inside, piles are no bother at all. But if they are hanging outside the anus and are continually being rubbed when you sit down or move about, they become sore, swollen and twisted and, during bowel movements, they may bleed.
As London surgeon, Roger Leicester explains:
'Piles don't generally occur much before young adulthood. Women get piles largely because of pregnancy, and men and women tend to get them because they sit on the loo too long, straining. But one thing in common to both sexes is lack of fibre in the diet and lack of fluid intake.'
(January 2001, resources updated January 2005)
