12. You can also have hidden blood in your stool
Blood in the stools is not always clearly visible. As noted above, you can notice red blood in the stools, but it can be black instead. In these cases, black stools (melena) are often missed out by patients. So, if you do not notice anything different in your stools but perceive a very foul odor, it is recommended to run a stool analysis.
In some cases, you don’t perceive a foul odor, and you don’t see any changes in the stool, but there is something called hidden blood. This is microscopic blood that is only detected under the microscope. Hidden blood is expected in the early stages of colon cancer, but it is also a sign of amebiasis and other gastrointestinal diseases.