“What do you know about piles?�

Now I realise this isn’t something people usually throw into everyday conversation – especially at the dinner table – so it did come as a little bit of a surprise when my friend posed the question just as we were finishing our mushroom chop suey.

By the way, my friend – we’ll call her Pat - is slim, blonde, attractive and very sporty and the last person in the world you’d expect to be harbouring a painful haemorrhoid. She said she’d received some interesting (but extremely dubious) suggestions for treatment from well-meaning colleagues… including one to “stand on my head and have a bath three times a day.� Not sure if she meant to lump the two together but logistically and for health and safety reasons I don’t think it’s a good idea. So don’t try that one at home.

I said I thought rubbing potato skin on the area is supposed to help but another friend at the table argued that this was an old wives’ tale intended for treating warts.

Pat said she had got round to discussing the matter with a very helpful pharmacist and later with her GP. However, she did confess to a little white lie. She told the pharmacist it was her mother who was suffering from the condition and that she was seeking advice on her behalf. I assume she abandoned her story and her misgivings when she saw her own doctor later that day.

Which brings me to the point of this story. Why are so many of us embarrassed about discussing what are perfectly normal, health problems? I have to admit that we all shifted uncomfortably in our seats when Pat brought up the subject of piles yet, when we sat and thought about it for a while, nearly every one of us had had experience of haemorrhoids at one time or other.

And nearly all of us had done exactly what she had done: told the pharmacist that we were getting help for our mother/elderly aunt/next door neighbour (what??) because we felt too embarrassed to admit that it was actually our own problem.

I think what really made me smile though was another friend’s comment the next day. Without a hint of malice she said. “In some strange way I’m quite pleased about Pat’s piles. She’s always seemed so perfect up till now!�

Incidentally, men are said to be the biggest culprits when it comes to avoiding their health - many find it really difficult to approach their GPs or other health professionals and are therefore often unaware that they’re living with a chronic condition. For example, an estimated 3% of men aged 35 and over have undiagnosed diabetes and many men also live with long-term mental health problems such as anxiety or depression.

And more than 30,000 men in the UK are diagnosed each year with prostate cancer, many of whom live with it for many years before seeking help.

It’s a strange old world. We sit and watch men and women stripping off and getting up close and personal in reality TV shows but we get all bashful when it comes to taking care of our own bodies.

What thinks you?

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