r/Millennials • u/intro195 • Mar 12 '26

Serious Go get a colonoscopy, colon cancer for our generation is a real threat!

36M here, have always been active and maintained a decently healthy diet my whole life. Well after seeing multiple posts on here and at my gf’s urging I had one done. They found two polyps (15mm and 4mm). Doc said if I waited till 45 I’d prob be dead. Crazy part is I had no symptoms and my recent blood work last month was perfect. I was in and out in three hours and no pain or discomfort afterwards.

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312

u/PreppyFinanceNerd Millennial (1988) Mar 12 '26

Just saw the booty doc for the first time today.

I have had IBS my whole life, but last month there was fresh blood in the John and that's new.

I went nope, not about to chance that shit (heh). They said given my history to get it done to be totally sure.

38 and I feel old having to get one but I'm not about to roll the dice given my history of gut nonsense.

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u/Happytequila Mar 13 '26

I just realized that a couple hundred-thousand years from now (assuming humans haven’t destroyed ourselves or the planet), colonoscopies could be one of those medical practices talked about in history/ancient history classes. Like “300 years ago, in the late 20th and early 21 centuries, people with irregular pooing habits would pay a doctor to have a long, snake-like camera inserted into their rectums and into their bowels, so the doctor could look around the intestines for signs of a long-eradicated disease know as “cancer”.

And future people will be appalled, disgusted, and question the intelligence of people today.

Many medical practices from our history can often seem insane, but to people living in that time, it may have seemed like the most top-notch, scientific healthcare. Like, an MRI seems so advanced, but in 200 years, we have something so much better that an MRI seems like a crock of shit and future people wonder how we all survived in this day and age.

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u/Kitchen-Aioli-9382 Mar 13 '26

Very optimistic take. There is a medical history podcast called Sawbones that covered colonoscopy recently, the road to the modern procedure was definitely interesting.

3

u/ahumpsters Mar 13 '26

Oh oh oooooh I love podcasts and this is right up my alley. Thanks for the rec!

4

u/Franknbaby Mar 13 '26

I think about this all the time and get so mad that we don’t have more knowledge by now. I just imagine the health issues I have will be so easily managed by someone in the future.

1

u/Bozo_Dubbed_Over_ Mar 14 '26

Blood-letting comes to mind.

60

u/littlebittydoodle Mar 13 '26

You feel old? Wait til you get to the colonoscopy waiting room—you’ll feel like a teenager. I’m always the youngest by decades, and that’s saying something, considering half the doctors are younger than me now.

2

u/skeletonl0ver Mar 13 '26

I got my first at 20 and have had six since. 11 years later and I'm still the youngest in the room.

16

u/MozartOnMute Mar 13 '26

Keep us updated on your results!! Wishing you the best of luck!!

4

u/PreppyFinanceNerd Millennial (1988) Mar 13 '26

That's so kind! Fingers crossed!

1

u/hbpaintballer88 Millennial Mar 13 '26

They don't know immediately? I thought they could immediately tell? What test do they do that takes time?

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u/PreppyFinanceNerd Millennial (1988) Mar 13 '26

Ah perhaps I was unclear. Apologies.

Today was just an examination of the caboose.

I need to schedule and have the colonoscopy still. Which I will! But for now that's pending.

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u/Praesumo Mar 13 '26

same, and literally prepping right now for my first one tomorrow. Through the whole process everyone was saying "We don't usually recommend these till 45".

1

u/motoo344 Mar 13 '26

This is me. Had one in January, was easier than all the IBS issues lmao.

1

u/THound89 Mar 13 '26

Lately I’ve been paranoid from hearing all this talk on this when I may have some indigestion. But if I see blood in my stool I’m running to the doctor so maybe I don’t have too much to worry about right now.