Last May a good friend of mine, 35 years old, was diagnosed with stage 4 colorectal cancer. He had experienced on/off constipation and stomach pain for a month, but otherwise healthy. When he went to the ER they suspected volvulus, but scans showed a huge tumor blocking. Long story short, it was cancer and it had spread to his liver and lungs.

He's still alive, and responding well to treatment, in the sense that the tumors are shrinking - but in general the prognosis is poor. And he's been completely ravaged by the treatment. If he survives, it is very unlikely he can go back working.

This prompted me to get myself checked. After telling my GP about my symptoms, he told me - yup, better get blood tests, stool samples, and a colonoscopy.

The colonoscopy turned out to be almost completely painless. If anything, the prep was more annoying than the procedure itself. And by far my biggest anxiety was the idea of getting my fears confirmed.

Luckily, there was nothing. Not even a single polyp. All other tests came back normal, too.

So, at least based on my experience, don't hesitate. It's really not bad.

EDIT: I took it without general anesthesia. I was asked if I wanted a mix of sedative and painkiller for the procedure, which I think was some benzo and fentanyl mix - to which I said yes. Where I'm from (Norway), propofol is not the standard for colonoscopy.

Honestly I couldn't really feel much difference when I was given the mix - I've been under general anesthesia before, and the second you get propofol you instantly from normal to "drunk".

Obviously it's individual, though. I've talked with people that have had the procedure without anything (because they had to drive there), and had minimal discomfort. And I've talked with people that needed sedatives / painkillers.

If for some reason you don’t want to be anesthetized you can just ask. It is also cheaper this way and you can drive yourself home.

Based on my limited research it seems like anesthesia is mostly there because people are prude.

The painful parts of procedure doesn’t hurt any more than having bad gas pain.

And it’s only a few less-than-ten-second points during the procedure that are anywhere near what I would describe as painful.

The insertion of the camera is rather jarring if you’re not used to having things stuck up your ass, but again surprisingly painless.

I was able to watch along with the doctor on a massive tv screen and see my own innards.

Worst part was taking preparatory laxatives before.

Overall not a bad experience for the piece of mind it provided.

Get a colonoscopy if you are due or have reason to believe you should get one.

In other words, dietary fiber in general or specific forms (e.g. Metamucil aka Psyllium husk) could be effective in lowering CRC risk or could have been so in the past but consumption of real-world dietary fiber in the current era in which glyphosate-based herbicides are in increasingly wide use could now be increasing cancer risks.

It was particularly brutal because it never showed up in any regular screenings, due to the tumor growing on the outside of their colon. It took ~2-3 weeks just to figure out what it was, but they only knew something was wrong because of some blood tests that came back with unusual results.

It was only 90 days from when they got the call about the unusual results till their death.

3 pre-cancerous polyps! Might have saved my life, as the recommended age for first screening here is 50! I'm now on a schedule to get checked every three years.