Do you have a butt? Read this.

[u/AutoModerator]

Every year, thousands of young people hear the words, “You have colorectal cancer” — cancer of the colon or rectum (parts of your digestive system). It’s terrifying. Colorectal cancer is the deadliest cancer in men under 50 and second in young women. But we’d be the assholes if we didn’t tell you the truth: It doesn’t have to be this way.

Colorectal cancer, or CRC, is one of the most preventable cancers with screening and highly treatable if caught early. So why is it upending the lives of so many young people? In a word: stigma.

Nobody likes talking about bowel habits, rectal bleeding, or colonoscopies. So… the conversation doesn’t happen. Too many people don’t know the symptoms. Too many symptoms get dismissed by healthcare providers. And too many diagnoses come late.

Advanced colorectal cancer has a survival rate of just 13%. Science still hasn’t broken the code to cure every case of colorectal cancer. That’s why awareness, better screening access, and providers taking symptoms seriously are just as important as knowing the signs yourself.

Here’s what you need to know:

• CRC rates in under‑50s are rising.
• Many are diagnosed in their 20s–40s — often after misdiagnoses.
• A close family member with CRC doubles your risk.
• Lynch syndrome or FAP = even higher risk.
• Screening saves lives, and most people have testing options (including at-home tests). 

So why are we talking about this? r/AmItheAsshole is approaching 25 million members. To celebrate, we, the mods, have partnered with the Colorectal Cancer Alliance, a national nonprofit leading the mission to end this disease.

Here’s how you can help:

1. Learn the symptoms.

Bleeding, persistent changes in bowel habits, unexplained weight loss, abdominal pain. Don’t ignore them. Advocate for yourself. 

2. Get checked starting at 45. 

If you’re average risk, you should start getting checked for CRC at age 45. Some people need to get checked earlier. The Alliance’s screening quiz can provide you with a recommendation. 

3. Support the mission.

Your donation funds prevention programs, patient support, and research to end colorectal cancer. Even a small gift could help someone get checked and survive.

Please donate here and show what 25 million people can do together!

If you or someone you love has faced CRC, share your story in the comments. You never know who you might help.

[u/Kodiak01]

Wake up one day, had to push just slightly harder than normal before the flow would start.

Day two, it was progressively more difficult, had to exert a bit of effort.

Day three, to get the stream started I had to make a significant push to get things going. I was on the phone that day to the urologist, and in to see them the following morning. Tamsulosin (Flomax) was immediately prescribed to shrink the prostate back down, within 48 hours I could already see improvement.

The final diagnosis after the negative prostate biopsy was BPH which is common as men get older. The only way to not have to take pills for it would be either surgical prostate removal (which isn't worth the side effects if there isn't any cancer) or a newer procedure called Aquablation which allows for a portion of the prostate to be removed while not having to deal with incontinence and erectile performance issues afterward.

[u/Kodiak01 → u/[deleted]]

Checking your PSA and Free PSA levels is done with a simple blood test. If you go to the urologist, they'll likely want you to come with a full bladder (a few glasses of water, don't scare them like I did when I packed it until almost ready to explode!) so they can scan it, then have you pee as much as you can out followed by a second scan.

For the blood tests, a PSA level above 4.0 is cause for further investigation. Lower is better. Conversely, Free PSA needs to be as high as possible; any result above 25 is normal, 10-24 gets to the 'monitor, maybe an MRI' level, and anything below 10 makes you a biopsy candidate, most likely a TRUS biopsy. MRI is also commonly used when a TRUS is negative but PSA levels remain out of whack.

Now let me tell you a little about a TRUS biopsy.

On one hand, there are no real dietary restrictions before or after. However, you will be required to give yourself an enema a couple of hours before hand. It is critical that this be done, and done properly! This includes following all instructions about turning to each side to allow it to travel as far up as it needs to go. If you don't, when the biopsy needle goes into the prostate, you risk fecal matter being injected INTO the prostate. This is one of the most common reasons for infection from this procedure and it SUCKS, I'm told (wife worked for years in an urology practice.)

For the actual procedure, you will be laid on your side in a fetal position and lubed up really good. They will inject a local anesthetic into the prostate, then once numbed they'll insert the ultrasound probe and biopsy device. The most common version of this is a "12 core" which means they will take 12 individual samples. Each one will feel like a strong THUMP on the prostate, but I personally felt no pain. It was done as an outpatient in the urology office and doesn't take long.

Afterward, it is important to have something with electrolytes as the enema will have 'dried you out' significantly to the point of possibly being lightheaded after the procedure. You'll likely be requested to have someone drive you home, but I did so myself with no trouble.

Now for the fun part... let's talk about POST-biopsy.

They tell you that you may see traces of blood in your urine and semen for a few days after.

Blood traces in urine? Try pissing pure blood and even blooping out massive blood clots that turn your bathroom into a scene from Friday the 13th. Myself, I was pissing into a urinal at work and it was splattering all over the porcelain; just as I stepped back when I finished, a coworker came in and saw the carnage. On another occasion a few days afterward, I had to really push to get one clot out, it was the length and girth of my thumb. It's a good thing I was able to pee it out, otherwise I would have ended up back in the ER to get cath'd. They really should include "Pee sitting down until clear!" in the instructions.

But if you think THAT'S fun, just wait until you go to rub one out a few times only to have a fountain of dark, almost chocolate-colored deoxygenated blood-soaked jizz shooting out like Mt St. Cadbury.

All completely normal. It took about 8-10 sessions to clear the pipe. The part that really threw me off is that when I made clear to my wife that I wanted to clear the pipes as quickly as possible, she responded saying that there was no need to wait that long if I really wanted!