Shame keeps them away until the disease has advanced beyond what conservative treatment can fix.
In clinics across Vietnam, surgeons are witnessing a quiet generational shift: hemorrhoids, once considered a condition of middle and old age, are arriving in the lives of students and young workers with unexpected severity. The cause is not hidden — it lives in the ordinary convergence of sedentary habits, fiber-poor diets, and the small, unremarkable decision to bring a smartphone into the bathroom. What makes this moment worth attention is not the condition itself, but what it reveals about how modern convenience quietly reshapes the body, and how shame can transform a preventable discomfort into a surgical necessity.
- Young adults and students are being diagnosed with advanced-stage hemorrhoids — conditions once rare before middle age — because prolonged toilet sitting with phones disrupts the body's natural evacuation reflexes and raises rectal pressure over time.
- Social stigma surrounding the condition keeps patients silent until bleeding, prolapse, and infection have already set in, forcing surgical intervention where simple lifestyle changes would once have sufficed.
- Surgeons at a May workshop in Can Tho are sounding the alarm: the combination of fast food, low fiber intake, inadequate hydration, and sedentary routines has created a near-perfect environment for chronic constipation and hemorrhoid development in younger populations.
- Diode laser surgery is emerging as a less painful, faster alternative to traditional procedures — cutting recovery time from two weeks to under seven days and significantly reducing the risk of recurrence and complications.
- Hospitals like Hoang Tuan General are actively building specialized surgical capacity and training teams in laser techniques, signaling that the medical system is preparing for a growing patient population that is younger than expected.
A medical workshop held in Can Tho in May gathered surgeons around a concern that has been quietly reshaping clinical reality: hemorrhoids are arriving in younger lives, and arriving worse. The pattern Dr. La Van Phu observes at Can Tho General Hospital is consistent — students and working-age adults presenting not at the early stages where lifestyle changes can help, but at stage three or four, where surgery is the only remaining option. The delay is driven by embarrassment. The location of the problem makes people reluctant to seek care, and by the time shame gives way to necessity, the disease has advanced.
The mechanics are not complicated. A phone in the hand makes time on the toilet disappear. Prolonged sitting increases pressure on the rectal wall and interferes with the body's natural evacuation reflex. Pair this with diets heavy in fast food and low in fiber, insufficient water intake, and the habit of suppressing the urge to go, and chronic constipation becomes the norm. Dr. Phu is direct about the remedy: eat fiber, drink water, move regularly, maintain a bathroom schedule, and leave the phone outside the door.
For those already past the point of prevention, the surgical options have improved. Diode laser technology targets only the blood vessels feeding the hemorrhoids, shrinking them without removing surrounding tissue. The contrast with traditional surgery is significant — less postoperative pain, reduced bleeding, lower recurrence rates, and a return to normal walking within two days and work within a week, compared to the two or more weeks that conventional procedures typically demand. Complications like urinary retention and anal stenosis, common with older methods, are rare with the laser approach.
Hoang Tuan General Hospital is investing in a dedicated surgical suite for these procedures and training its teams accordingly. The infrastructure is being built. But the doctors are clear: the most important intervention happens long before any operating room becomes relevant — in the daily, barely-noticed choices about stillness, food, and what we carry with us into the bathroom.
A workshop held in Can Tho in May brought together surgeons to discuss a problem that has been creeping into younger lives: hemorrhoids arriving earlier and more severely than they used to. The culprit, according to medical experts, is not mysterious. It is the combination of sitting still too long, eating fast food, and scrolling through a phone while on the toilet—a habit that has become so ordinary it barely registers as a choice.
Dr. La Van Phu, who heads the general surgery department at Can Tho General Hospital, described what he sees in his clinic. Young people are coming in with hemorrhoid problems. Not just adults in their fifties or sixties, but students and people in their working years. The condition is showing up earlier, and it is showing up worse. When these patients finally arrive at the hospital, many are already at stage three or four—the point where bleeding, prolapse, and infection have set in, and surgery becomes necessary. The delay happens because the location of the problem makes people reluctant to seek help. Shame keeps them away until the disease has advanced beyond what conservative treatment can fix.
The mechanics are straightforward. When you sit on a toilet with a phone in your hand, time disappears. You stay there longer than your body needs. The prolonged pressure on the rectal wall, combined with the distraction that prevents your natural evacuation reflex from working properly, creates conditions where hemorrhoids form and grow. Add to this a diet heavy in fast food, spicy dishes, and processed ingredients—all low in fiber—and you have created an environment for chronic constipation. Insufficient water intake and the habit of deliberately holding back bowel movements compound the problem further.
Dr. Phu emphasized that while hemorrhoids are not fatal, they exact a real cost on health and quality of life. The pain is significant. The bleeding is real. The impact on daily function is substantial. Prevention, he stressed, comes down to basics: eat fiber, drink water, move your body, use the bathroom on a regular schedule, and crucially, leave your phone outside the bathroom door.
For those whose cases have already progressed to the point where surgery is needed, the medical landscape has shifted. Diode laser technology represents a step forward from the traditional surgical approaches that have been used for decades. The laser works by targeting only the blood vessels that feed the hemorrhoids, shrinking them while leaving the normal anatomy of the anal region intact—the lining, the tissue, the muscles. Traditional surgery, by contrast, removes tissue, which disrupts the natural function of the area and often leads to longer recovery and more complications.
Dr. Tran Ngoc Dung, who leads the colorectal and pelvic floor surgery department at Hanoi Medical University Hospital, outlined the advantages. Patients experience less pain. Bleeding after surgery is reduced both in duration and intensity. The rate at which hemorrhoids return is very low. Urinary retention, a common complication of traditional surgery, is rare. Anal stenosis—a narrowing of the anal opening—does not occur. Most remarkably, patients can walk normally within two days and return to work within six or seven days, compared to the two weeks or more that traditional methods require.
Hoang Tuan General Hospital, recognizing the value of this advancement, is investing in a specialized surgical suite equipped for diode laser interventions. The surgical teams are receiving hands-on training from experts in the field. The message is clear: the technology exists, the expertise is being built, and the path forward is becoming available. But the real prevention, the doctors agree, happens before any of this becomes necessary—in the daily choices about how we sit, what we eat, and whether we bring our phones into the bathroom.
Citas Notables
Doctors frequently encounter young patients, especially those in their working years, including many students with hemorrhoid problems.— Dr. La Van Phu, head of general surgery, Can Tho General Hospital
Although not directly fatal, this disease severely impacts health and quality of life.— Dr. La Van Phu
La Conversación del Hearth Otra perspectiva de la historia
Why are younger people getting hemorrhoids now when this used to be a problem for older people?
The shift is really about how we live. Phones have made it normal to sit on the toilet for twenty, thirty minutes at a time. Your body's natural signals get ignored. Add a diet of fast food and processed meals, and you've created the exact conditions for the problem to develop.
But hemorrhoids have always existed. What's changed?
The age at which they appear and how severe they are when people finally get treatment. Young people are showing up with stage three and four disease—bleeding, prolapse—because they waited too long. They waited because talking about genital pain feels impossible.
So it's not just the phone habit. It's also shame.
Exactly. The phone habit creates the physical problem. But shame creates the medical crisis. People don't go to a doctor until it's an emergency, and by then surgery is the only option.
Can you actually prevent this just by changing your habits?
Yes, according to the doctors. Fiber, water, movement, regular bathroom habits, and keeping your phone out of the bathroom. For mild cases, that's enough. The problem is most people don't realize they have a problem until it's advanced.
And if someone does need surgery, what's changed there?
The laser technology is a real difference. Two days to walk normally instead of two weeks. Much less pain. Much lower chance of it coming back. But it's still surgery. Prevention is still better.