there can be other causes for black stools other than a gastric (stomach) bleed. bleeding from the stomach (melena) causes black tarry stools. blood in other areas of your intestinal tract may be occult (hidden) or appear as brown bright red in your stools either mixed in or streaked. if you stool tests for occult blood are consistently negative (you need to do several on different days over a longer period of time) then you most likely do not have bleeding as a cause of your darker stools. spinach/leafy-greens and the bismuth in pepto bismol are common non-bleeding causes. keep working with your doctor to get your relatively-mild anemia in control and certainly investigate the reason for pain under your breast. since it still could be gastrointestinaly related.
can stool test be a false negative? . i have been told i am anemic hg of 11. my stool was tested in office about three months ago and came back neg. i now have black loose stools and pain in middle under breasts. i'm worried i am bleeding.