Gastrointestinal (GI) bleeding is usually categorized as either melena or hematochezia. Melena refers to black stools, while hematochezia refers to fresh, red blood in your stool. This blood might be ...
Both conditions involve symptoms of gastrointestinal bleeding, though a major difference is that hematochezia often presents as bright red blood in the stool, while melena appears as black, tarry ...
Roshini Raj, MD, is Health's former magazine's medical editor and coauthor of What the Yuck?!. Board-certified in gastroenterology and internal medicine, Dr. Raj is a Clinical Associate Professor of ...