Hello, I have experienced an anal fissure (at least that's what I have been told it is), and I can't seem to get over it.
First, I'd like to start off with describing myself: I'm an 18 year old girl, I eat VERY healthy (mostly vegetables, fruits, and grain products), I am 5'0 and weigh about 100 pounds (this is average weight for my height). I am not overweight, I am not ill, I do not have constipation, and I experience regular bowel movements (one every other day).
I had strep throat a few months back and was prescribed "Biaxin". I had to take it for 10 days, and it worked wonders on my illness. Unfortunately, as one of the side effects of the medication, after about 5 days of taking it I did experience one very large, hard stool. It was probably one of the most painful things I have experience in my young life, and I am certain that it has caused a tear in my anus. It had a minimal amount of bleeding, and the pain is right at the exit, not farther up in the intestines.
Ever since then, I have experienced pain while having a bowel movement. Not nearly as bad as the first hard stool, but because the fissure is "re-opening" as I would describe it. There is usually a very small amount of bright red blood on the toilet paper as well (definitely NOT in the stool itself though, nor is there dark red or black spots in it, I have checked as I know this means something more serious such as internal bleeding) I no longer have hard stools since being off the medicine, in fact my stools have been back to normal and are fairly soft (with the very occasional semi-hard stool, but not frequent). But I don't understand how it can heal if it reopens every other day.
The pain is becoming too much, I actually fear going to the bathroom. I don't want to have to go to the doctor if there is something I can do about this at home myself. The only information I have been able to come up with is sitting in a warm bath to allow blood flow to the area and quicker healing (which in all honesty, I have not tried), and to eat more fiber to have softer stools. My stools are not hard as it is, but apparently they are hard enough to re-open the tear.
I have tried everything, including avoiding going to the bathroom to allow an extra day of healing (I know its a bad idea now, but at the time it seemed like a liable option at the time), which made the stool harder because it was in the intestines for an extra day and lost water. Obviously that made it worse. I have tried eating more fruits but I already do that on a regular basis so that hasn't changed much of anything. I don't think I should take laxatives or anything without consent of a doctor, so I would like to know some other options I have before I take this to get professional help (which I have read is surgery).
I know this is a lot of information, but I wanted to get the best possible answers to my situation. What can I do to speed up this healing process?
First, I'd like to start off with describing myself: I'm an 18 year old girl, I eat VERY healthy (mostly vegetables, fruits, and grain products), I am 5'0 and weigh about 100 pounds (this is average weight for my height). I am not overweight, I am not ill, I do not have constipation, and I experience regular bowel movements (one every other day).
I had strep throat a few months back and was prescribed "Biaxin". I had to take it for 10 days, and it worked wonders on my illness. Unfortunately, as one of the side effects of the medication, after about 5 days of taking it I did experience one very large, hard stool. It was probably one of the most painful things I have experience in my young life, and I am certain that it has caused a tear in my anus. It had a minimal amount of bleeding, and the pain is right at the exit, not farther up in the intestines.
Ever since then, I have experienced pain while having a bowel movement. Not nearly as bad as the first hard stool, but because the fissure is "re-opening" as I would describe it. There is usually a very small amount of bright red blood on the toilet paper as well (definitely NOT in the stool itself though, nor is there dark red or black spots in it, I have checked as I know this means something more serious such as internal bleeding) I no longer have hard stools since being off the medicine, in fact my stools have been back to normal and are fairly soft (with the very occasional semi-hard stool, but not frequent). But I don't understand how it can heal if it reopens every other day.
The pain is becoming too much, I actually fear going to the bathroom. I don't want to have to go to the doctor if there is something I can do about this at home myself. The only information I have been able to come up with is sitting in a warm bath to allow blood flow to the area and quicker healing (which in all honesty, I have not tried), and to eat more fiber to have softer stools. My stools are not hard as it is, but apparently they are hard enough to re-open the tear.
I have tried everything, including avoiding going to the bathroom to allow an extra day of healing (I know its a bad idea now, but at the time it seemed like a liable option at the time), which made the stool harder because it was in the intestines for an extra day and lost water. Obviously that made it worse. I have tried eating more fruits but I already do that on a regular basis so that hasn't changed much of anything. I don't think I should take laxatives or anything without consent of a doctor, so I would like to know some other options I have before I take this to get professional help (which I have read is surgery).
I know this is a lot of information, but I wanted to get the best possible answers to my situation. What can I do to speed up this healing process?
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Hey HealthyGirl,
Interestingly enough, I have had about the exact problem as you except in my case I am a 21 year old male. I am 5' 9'' and I weigh 160 lbs. My issue began 12-7-10 during exam week at my school. During the week I was very stressed and I did not keep up with my healthy eating habits like I needed to. This caused my stools to become hard and led to a fissure. For the past month I have been trying different approaches to help it heal, which have obviously been unsuccessful. Now I too am considering seeing a doctor as I think I have exhausted most home remedies, except for a warm bath which I will now give a try sometime soon.
Here are some of the things I have tried which may help you.
I began by doubling my daily water intake. Also, I made sure to use wet wipes after each bathroom visit to make sure the area was kept clean. After about a week of no progress I began to take fiber pills (which have, if nothing else, made my bathroom visits more comfortable). I have even tried using NEOSPORIN® to clean the area (not recommended). The most recent approach I have been using for a while is TUCKS® hemorrhoid wipes. They are simply wet wipes with some witch hazel infused in them. These have been the best thing for my fissure so far. They help to relieve the pain as well as clean the area. Even though they say they are for hemorrhoids, they are perfectly fine to use for fissures. Although, I would suggest that you get the off brand as long as the ingredients match up.
While my fissure has not healed yet, It is slowly healing and has lessened to just a bit of blood on my toilet paper. I think you will have better luck using these home remedies because my fissure was really bad and at one point blood would actually drip into the toilet. Gross, I know, but the unfortunate truth.
I hope this all helps and good luck with your fissure. Let me know if you find any new solutions that seem to help. :-)
Interestingly enough, I have had about the exact problem as you except in my case I am a 21 year old male. I am 5' 9'' and I weigh 160 lbs. My issue began 12-7-10 during exam week at my school. During the week I was very stressed and I did not keep up with my healthy eating habits like I needed to. This caused my stools to become hard and led to a fissure. For the past month I have been trying different approaches to help it heal, which have obviously been unsuccessful. Now I too am considering seeing a doctor as I think I have exhausted most home remedies, except for a warm bath which I will now give a try sometime soon.
Here are some of the things I have tried which may help you.
I began by doubling my daily water intake. Also, I made sure to use wet wipes after each bathroom visit to make sure the area was kept clean. After about a week of no progress I began to take fiber pills (which have, if nothing else, made my bathroom visits more comfortable). I have even tried using NEOSPORIN® to clean the area (not recommended). The most recent approach I have been using for a while is TUCKS® hemorrhoid wipes. They are simply wet wipes with some witch hazel infused in them. These have been the best thing for my fissure so far. They help to relieve the pain as well as clean the area. Even though they say they are for hemorrhoids, they are perfectly fine to use for fissures. Although, I would suggest that you get the off brand as long as the ingredients match up.
While my fissure has not healed yet, It is slowly healing and has lessened to just a bit of blood on my toilet paper. I think you will have better luck using these home remedies because my fissure was really bad and at one point blood would actually drip into the toilet. Gross, I know, but the unfortunate truth.
I hope this all helps and good luck with your fissure. Let me know if you find any new solutions that seem to help. :-)
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Thank you for the reply! I will definitely be trying the fiber pills if it at least helps with pain. I will also try to look around for some hemorrhoid wipes as well, they sound pretty effective! It certainly sounds like yours was worse than mine, so hopefully I will have some sort of luck with these. :-)
I will make sure to let you know how it goes or of anything else that helps!
I will make sure to let you know how it goes or of anything else that helps!
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I've had my fissure for 5 months. I've had the botox injection which helped to relieve the pain during BM's and afterwards. I'm now into my second month and the botox is wearing off so the pain is returning. I'm eating more fiber, drinking more water and take senna laxative and stool softeners and I'm frustrated beyond belief. I've been to an infectious disease specialist because I should of healed by now. They did find the cells around my anus to be a bit abnormal but one doc says "no problem" and the other says I should have an anoscopy. I just want to be back to my self and it's not happening. My boyfriend dumped me right at the time I got the fissure and I just found a website called Dr. Kim who talks about how stress impacts the healing process. I don't want the botox again but I may have to. I can't believe there's no great cure for this. My other option is a sphincterectomy where they cut the muscle to relieve the pressure but they're not sure what the long term effect will be (incontinence in older age, etc)
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I am a 25 year old female. I just had my first baby 2 1/2 months ago. When my daughter was a month old she got RSV which obviously stressed me out because I didn't want my baby to be sick. I had diarrhea a couple of mornings and noticed an indescribable pain accompanied by some blood on the toilet paper. I have now been experiencing extremely painful bowel movements and bleeding when I wipe for the last month and a half. My Dr. prescribed me hydrocortizone suppositories a month ago and the only thing they have done was made it a little less painful in the morning when I wake up. However as soon as I have a BM it hurts for hours afterwards. I have pretty much talked him into prescribing me Nitroglycerin ointment, which I'm scared to use because one of the side effects is a horrible headache and I already suffer with migraine, but I hear it has successful results in healing the fissure. Now that I have described my situation, I'll get to the question. I have been taking Colace stool softeners now for a few days and my last two bowel movements (I have one a day) I have not bled. It still hurts real bad when I'm going, but significantly less afterwards, to the point where I have actually been able to function, rather than just lying on the couch moaning in pain. I was wondering if I can continue to have bowel movements without bleeding, will it heal? I certainly hope so but any knowledge or answers you could pass on would be much appreciated.
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Hey..My dad has the same problem, and doc's said he has to take care otherwise it'd be turn into a cancer..So, he's using a medicine and most importantly, he's filling hot (not much indeed) water in a wide washtub and simply sitting over it like 10 minutes..It DOES help to shrink the fissure and makes you feel completely relaxed..
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That is entirely false and if a doctor told our father that and it was exactly what he said and meant he should lose his medical license. I am a RN and it is false information such as this that frightens me as someone in the medical field. Either this doctor is giving out blatantly false information or trying to scare your father to consider the surgery option if the creams don't work fast enough to help his financial bottom line. So if this is truly what he said that is false information.
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I've had mine for about 4 years now... It won't go away.
At first I went to the doctors to find out what it was, and she said (after examining it) that it was just an anal fissure. She offered some sort of rectally taken pill but at the time I declined it thinking it would just heal. Hot/warm baths don't work.
Sometimes I get no blood, other times, it literally drips out like a leaking tap. If I'm sat on the toilet for a long time when this is occuring, the toilet water actually turns to a deep blood red because it bleeds so much. It has currently started leaking a lot again, so I've come looking for possible remedies, but it appears nothign much works :(
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If you can go to a colorectal surgeon, or a regular dr maybe there is a "vaseline type ointment" it has blood pressure medicine mixed with vaseline, and it works well on fissures. You have to have a prescription and examination to make sure its a fissure first, and they will give you the prescription for it.
I know you re young, and it feels embarassing, i am in my 40's and was mortified to have to show my butt to a dr, but i am sure at your age yours is a bit prettier that mine, so don't worry about it. Its a few minutes, they will examine you and its over with. Now they will want you to come back for a follow up in a month or two to see if it worked. Until then, keep up with your healthy diet and plenty of water.
I know you re young, and it feels embarassing, i am in my 40's and was mortified to have to show my butt to a dr, but i am sure at your age yours is a bit prettier that mine, so don't worry about it. Its a few minutes, they will examine you and its over with. Now they will want you to come back for a follow up in a month or two to see if it worked. Until then, keep up with your healthy diet and plenty of water.
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I've had a fissure for almost 2 yrs. The pain was unbearable. I tried everything the doctors (2 different ones) told me to do and used the nytro cream and dilatazem (sp) cream and then botox which really relieves the pain and pressure but didn't cure the fissure. I finally broke down and had the sphincterotomy (10/2011) done which was nothing compared to the pain. I didn't have any fecal incontinence like they said could occur. Since it wasn't healing I requested the botox injection (12/2011) after the surgery and it helped tremendously but only works for 3 months. Now I'm past the 3 months and even though it's not healed, I can live with the slight pain. Just when it seems like it's healing, a harder than normal stool comes along and opens it back up and I find a "racing stripe" of red blood on my stools. I take a stool softener with laxative tablet nightly before I go to bed and find that helps the next day. I asked my color rectal surgeon if taking this continuously was bad and he said it wasn't as it only adds water to the stool. I truly feel that this will never heal and it's something that I have to live with.......if the pain doesn't get back to where it was prior to the surgery then I can live with it. See a color rectal surgeon and seriously........don't hesitate on the surgery. It's not half as bad as they make it out to be!!
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I was about 24 at the time I went to the doctors, and yes, it was embarrassing, curled up in the fetal position with my manbut being poked and prodded by a female doctor but to be honest, it was a relief knowing it was nothing else serious.
At some point soon, I shall go back to face the same again, but armed with the knowledge of this 'vaseline type ointment', so I shall hopefully have an end in sight to this 4 year+ phenomenon. Thank you mbkg92!
To anyone else afraid/embarrassed to go to a doctor to get it checked out; not going makes it 100 times worse in your head. Be sure, don't be regretful.
At some point soon, I shall go back to face the same again, but armed with the knowledge of this 'vaseline type ointment', so I shall hopefully have an end in sight to this 4 year+ phenomenon. Thank you mbkg92!
To anyone else afraid/embarrassed to go to a doctor to get it checked out; not going makes it 100 times worse in your head. Be sure, don't be regretful.
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My doctor prescribed me proctosedyl suppositories for anal fissure, so I think it is worth trying out.
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If you have health insurance I suggest getting the Lateral internal sphincterotomy performed. I went 1.5 years in pain as I was too afraid to have the procedure done. I had it done in Dec 2011 and it was the best thing I did. I don't think fissures actually ever heal due to their location on the body, but I no longer have any pain that can't be handled. If I do have pain it's minimal and believe me, it was worth it. "The procedure has been shown to be very effective, with 96% of fissures healing at a median of 3 weeks in one trial.[2]"
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Hey m going through same problem i suggest you warm bath in tub would definitely make a difference and you feel relief try tht.
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Hey everyone,
I am a healthy 52 yr old male, 6', 160lbs, eat a healthy high fiber diet and I'm a marathon runner. The exact same problem: an anal fissure that just won't go away including (on bad days) blood squirting into the toilet during bowel movements. I'm seeing my GP for the second time in two weeks since the ointment she prescribed hasn't helped. I'm fed up and am going to insist on cauterization and/or surgery.
Thanks for sharing your information. It helps to know I'm not alone.
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