Butt Anatomy, Simplified
The human body is a wonderland, including your bowels.
Your bowels are a complex system responsible for absorbing nutrients and getting rid of waste. When things don’t go right, this part of your body can also be a literal pain in the ass.
Understanding how your body works can help you learn the best way to take care of it. It’s also helpful to know the proper names for your body parts to better communicate with your healthcare provider and find useful resources for yourself - i.e. Google the right thing.
So, what organs make up your bowels and how do they work?
Let’s take a very simple journey through your butt.
Source: unknown
Bowel Anatomy
After your food gets broken down in your stomach, it moves into the small intestines, a tube made of muscles that is about 22 feet long. It then moves through your large intestines, which is shorter than your small intestines but wider. The large intestine is also called the bowel or colon.
At the end of your large intestines is your rectum. Food waste is stored in your rectum until you have a bowel movement. The rectum is about 5 inches long, and this waste is everything that did not get absorbed by the stomach and intestines.
Once your rectum is full, “muscles in the rectum move the waste, called stool, out of the body through the anus,” says the American Society of Colon and Rectum Surgeons.
The anus, or butthole, is the opening at the end of the anal canal. The anal canal is about 1.5 inches long and is connected to your rectum. It includes rings of muscles called sphincters that control the opening and closing of your anus.
You have veins inside your anal canal and on your anus. When these veins fill with blood and that blood gets stuck these become hemorrhoids.
Image courtesy S Bhimji MD. From: Internal Hemorrhoid Copyright © 2022, StatPearls Publishing LLC
If you suspect something within your body is not functioning correctly, talk to your healthcare provider. For hemorrhoid and anal fissure help, visit our site.
This was a very simplified overview of your anatomy. If you’d like to explore your bowel anatomy more in-depth, Cleveland Clinic is a great resource.
Citations
https://my.clevelandclinic.org/health/articles/7040-gastrointestinal-diseases
https://training.seer.cancer.gov/colorectal/anatomy/figure/figure2.html
https://www.betterhealth.vic.gov.au/health/conditionsandtreatments/digestive-system
https://fascrs.org/patients/diseases-and-conditions/a-z/the-colon-what-it-is,-what-it-does
