A woman has diarrhea every day for years. Colonoscopies don’t show anything, it’s psychological, they say. Then a doctor discovers the real reason.
Recorded by Constanze Löffler
The late 30s looked very worn out. She sat in front of me, emaciated and short of breath. She feels very weak, she said and told me her story: she had suffered from severe diarrhea for 16 years. She had suffered multiple anal vein thrombosis as a result of the intense pressure built up during defecation. The blood clots in the external venous vessels of the anus are very painful and often have to be surgically removed. If things continue like this, the surgeon had predicted, she would soon need an artificial anus.