I've been searching to see if anyone else on here has had a similar symptom, so thought I'd start a new thread - particularly should anyone in future come searching for similar symptoms.
For the past four weeks, I've felt - intermittently - as if there was something in my anal canal low down.
A GP saw me yesterday and did a DRE (Digital Rectal Examination - with finger) and she felt a small hard lump up my rectum and has put me on the cancer pathway to get it looked at by a colorectal consultant (not anal cancer department, I noticed on her referral letter which I found in my NHS App).
I will update as I go along in case anyone else searches for a similar symptom.
I thought the sensation of the lump in my anal canal was to do with my vaginal atrophy and was possibly a rectocele forming, so was I shocked when she did a cancer referral.
So it's the waiting game for me now - for appointment and results. Expecting the worst, but hoping for the best.
I should add I recently did a QFiT test which came a couple of weeks ago which back normal last week (I had a diverticular flare-up in March) - though reading some of the other threads a normal QFiT test doesn't always mean anything, though I guess it's a bit reassuring.
I had a colonoscopy in 2022 as a QFiT test back then showed blood in sample, and some polyps were taken away and some were sent for analysis (which came back normal).
At the moment, I have no bleeding or pain, and no CHIB (change in bowel habits - at the moment well-formed stools 2-3 times a day, depending on how big my meals have been) - just this strange sensation in my anal canal low down which comes and goes, though the GP put on her referral letter it was at the back left. (When I logged into my NHS App I could see her referral letter and she marked it on the Macmillan Safety Net criteria as that she was "Unsure it is cancer and could have other causes").
After the appointment when I got home, I put on a glove with lube and felt and I could see what she meant. A small hard lump about a finger length up (though to me it felt in the middle, not back left. I'm guessing nothing at all should be felt inside the rectum).
In 2017 I had three 'In Situ" melanomas removed, so I think my surgery take that into account, hence the referral.
I will update in due course.
Absolutely! Will keep an eye and then eventually decide what to do. Don’t want to start panicking (just yet!).
Health anxiety is no joke, if you don’t already, I would recommend some talking therapies. I’ve managed to get that through the NHS and it has somewhat helped me, but you have to put in the work 
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What I have come to realize is that a health anxious person is always more aware of anything going on in the body, which makes a lot of sense when it comes to these things.
