Proctitis and rectal bleeding

Proctitis, on these pages, is inflammation of the rectum, the last part of the large intestine before the anus. The pages list several causes. They do not tell a reader which one is present. ahem has not examined anyone and does not sell a treatment. Bleeding that these other pages describe as a hemorrhoid is on when rectal bleeding should be checked.

NIDDK last reviewed its definition page in December 2021. Opened October 29, 2026, it says proctitis may be chronic, lasting a long time or coming and going, or acute, developing suddenly and lasting a short time. It says proctitis in inflammatory bowel disease is chronic and is the most common type. Infectious proctitis is most often acute. Radiation proctopathy and diversion proctitis are separate types on that page.

Mayo Clinic dates its proctitis page September 20, 2025. It calls proctitis irritation and swelling of the rectum, and says it can cause rectal pain, diarrhea, bleeding, rectal discharge, and a constant feeling of needing to pass stool. Symptoms can be temporary or constant. It says proctitis is common in people with ulcerative colitis or Crohn's disease, that sexually transmitted infections are another frequent cause, and that it can be a side effect of radiation treatment.

NIDDK's symptoms page, also last reviewed in December 2021, lists tenesmus, an urgent need to have a bowel movement, diarrhea or constipation, cramping and pain in the anus, rectum, or left side of the abdomen, passing blood with stool or rectal bleeding, and passing mucus or pus. It defines tenesmus as feeling a constant urge to have a bowel movement even though the bowel may be empty.

Mayo Clinic's list is a frequent or continuous feeling of needing to pass stool, rectal bleeding, mucus through the rectum, rectal pain, pain on the left side of the belly, fullness in the rectum, diarrhea, and pain with bowel movements. MedlinePlus reviewed its proctitis page on April 21, 2025. Opened October 29, 2026, its symptom list is bloody stools, constipation, rectal bleeding, rectal discharge of pus, rectal pain or discomfort, and tenesmus, which it defines in parentheses as pain with a bowel movement. NIDDK's tenesmus line is an empty urge. MedlinePlus's parenthetical is pain with a bowel movement. Mayo Clinic lists the urge and pain with bowel movements as separate symptoms. Those wordings were left as each page wrote them.

On the definition page opened October 29, 2026, NIDDK says about 30 percent of people diagnosed with ulcerative colitis have inflammation in the rectum only. It says doctors call that ulcerative proctitis. Mayo Clinic says about 30 percent of people with inflammatory bowel disease have inflammation of the rectum, and that this is more common in ulcerative colitis than in Crohn's disease. One figure is rectum-only disease among people with ulcerative colitis. The other is rectal inflammation among people with inflammatory bowel disease. They were not treated as the same number.

Mayo Clinic also says that when inflammation is limited to the rectum in ulcerative colitis, rectal bleeding or urgency may be the only sign. That pattern is on ulcerative colitis and rectal bleeding. Crohn's disease, including Mayo Clinic's description of a fistula and a fissure, is on Crohn's disease and anal symptoms.

NIDDK's infectious causes include gonorrhea, chlamydia, genital herpes, and syphilis, plus foodborne infections such as Salmonella, Shigella, and Campylobacter, and Clostridioides difficile, most often during or shortly after antibiotics. Mayo Clinic's infection list includes gonorrhea, genital herpes, monkeypox, and chlamydia, plus the same foodborne bacteria and C. difficile after antibiotics. MedlinePlus adds lymphogranuloma venereum to the sexually transmitted list and says proctitis from a sexually transmitted infection is common in people who have anal intercourse. It also says one non-sexually transmitted infection in children is caused by the same bacteria as strep throat. That child sentence is MedlinePlus's, reviewed April 21, 2025. The other two pages opened today do not print it.

NIDDK prefers the term radiation proctopathy because it says this condition involves little or no inflammation. On the definition page checked October 29, 2026, acute radiation proctopathy most often occurs within 3 months of starting radiation therapy and typically lasts a short time, though it may become chronic. Chronic radiation proctopathy most often begins 9 to 14 months after radiation therapy, and it may develop many years later. Among people who have radiation therapy for cancer in the pelvic area or lower abdomen, NIDDK says about 75 percent develop acute radiation proctopathy and up to 20 percent develop chronic radiation proctopathy. Mayo Clinic says radiation proctitis can begin during treatment and last for a few months, or occur years after treatment. It does not print 75 percent, 20 percent, 3 months, or 9 to 14 months.

Diversion proctitis, on NIDDK's pages, can follow ostomy surgery when the rectum is left in place and waste leaves through a stoma. It says the condition is chronic and most often starts 3 months to 3 years after that surgery, and that less than half of people who keep the rectum develop symptoms. It says the inflammation typically goes away after a later surgery that reconnects the rectum. Those timings are NIDDK's. Mayo Clinic describes diversion proctitis after stool is diverted to a stoma and does not print the 3-month, 3-year, or less-than-half lines.

Mayo Clinic also describes food protein-induced proctitis in infants who drink cow's milk formula or soy formula, and in breastfed infants if the mother eats dairy products. It says eosinophilic proctitis, from a buildup of a type of white blood cell, more commonly affects children younger than 2. Those infant sentences are Mayo Clinic's. This page does not add a feeding schedule.