Anal Fissure will not heal (it's been a month)

I have been suffering with anal fissures for the last two years. I am a healthy 21 year old male, 5' 10" and 170 lbs. I have finally got my fissures to heal after trying every possible remedy to no avail (witch hazel, neosporin, coconut oil, saline enema) Rather than focusing on the fissure itself with ointments and medications, I found two big things that helped. Diet: Instead of bulking up the stool with lots of fiber, which can sometimes cause another tear, focus on softening up the stool. I found meat and processed foods to be the worst offenders at causing a hard stool. Especially processed foods since they tend to be high in sodium and can dehydrate the stool. Posture/Flexibility: I found that my actual sitting position on the toilet would aggravate the fissure. After traveling to China for a month and using mainly squatting toilets, my fissures completely disappeared, only to return when I came back home to sitting toilets. A lot of this has to do with your flexibility in your lower legs. If you cannot squat with your heels touching the ground, this may be a reason that your thigh muscles are overly contracting and not allowing your sphincter muscles to open up all the way. I've been practicing squat flexibility exercises and they have made my bowel movements much much smoother with no strain. After watching my diet and my lower body flexibility, combined with washing the anal area after every bowel movement, my fissures are almost completely gone. I won't have any pain or blood for a couple days, and then only a tiny speck of blood with no pain during a large bowel movement. The blood only shows up as a tiny fleck on the first wipe of the toilet paper, and is gone by the second swipe.

I've been dealing with an anal fissure for about 5 months and it is miserable! Overall I'm a pretty healthy person. I'm 26 5'7 and 130lbs I work out about 5 times a week and try to eat healthy foods. I have tried adding more fiber to my diet and some OTC ointment. It helped but didn't fix it completely. However about a month ago I went to the beach and swam in the ocean about 3 times and I swear it had completely healed! I was back to normal and made the mistake of letting my guard down and the next time I had a hard stool it was back. I then began swimming in a salt water pool a few times a week and I soak in a warm Epsom salt water bath the days I can't swim. Unfortunately I don't have the time to do this multiple times a day because of work so I think that is slowing it down some. I also do not use toilet paper anymore. Instead after each BM (which is always on the morning for me) I hop in the shower and wash the area with warm water. I'm going to start using neosporin now after reading this and I'm hoping to finally heal this thing!

Yes, this is a horrendous problem. I am also, like yourself, using the shower massage to clean up after a bm. I take Miralax every single day - it dissolves in my hot tea or coffee and is tasteless. I still am using the Cardizem gel, but frankly, I don't know if it is helping . I dump about a quarter cup of coconut oil in the tub now , (at least two to three hot baths a day) and that has really soothed the pain. I am on about week 5 or six and am scheduled for a repair in one week. I want my life back. Blessings.

Hi WIll, you are right. I have virtually quit eating meat since this all happened. I also agree with your posture suggestion, and the exercise. In addition, when this first occurred, I would breathe out forcefully (the way we do in labor!) and this helped also to open the area up. be well!

I just read in another forum that hazel witch days up the skin so the fissure cant heal whilst its dry, it need moisture for it to stretch during bowel movements...i am now confused!

Try applying ice. It worked really well for me.

hello I understand your pain I have been dealing with it myself for about 6 or 7 months till I tried Neosporin I swear it works just put a very small amount on a Q-tip and swab the end of your anus and you will feel and see instant results I have doing this for three days now and the swelling is almost gone and the pain is completely gone!

I faced the same problem but to be very frank doc wrote Annovate ointment... But its point is badly design, so I have modified the same and able to apply the same bit inside. But do not over use that. The best cure is to keep anus dry after every bath and bathroom by sleeping under full speed fan without under garments. Over application of gel will not allow to dry. Use two spoon of cremmafin syrup at night. Best luck.

So I may be celebrating early but I'm over a week pain free and I believe I've finally conquered this terrible pain.

Just a quick background. I'm a 27 yr old male who isn't in the greatest shape but no where near obese. I've suffered the long nights where the only comfort I got was from a deep glass of whatever was on my bar.

For 6 months on and off I just felt this would never end. I'd get a short break but a few bowel movements later I'll be back.

I tried eveything I've read. Coconut oil, neosporn, witch hazel on a cotton ball tucked partially in. These were my main tools in dealing with the pain when it flared up. The witch hazel became my go to and I found myself not reaching for the jack on my bar shelf.

After the last few late night pain sessions I decided I needed to take a stronger approach.

One, walking. I started walking some to get the blood flowing. Sitz baths didn't seem to help me but walking always did. Even in the early days of it pacing in circles around my couch seemed to help.

Two: I read about probiotics and how they seem to help digestive issues. So I decided to start taking them daily along with an aloe Vera gel tablet and stool softeners in the morning and at night.

Three: I felt like my bathroom habits had become terrible. Going 2 or 3 days without a visit. My girlfriend got me on this teami tea colon cleanse. It works! It cleared out the bulk and sent me to the bathroom multiple times. First day is the worst and then you take it every other day.

Four: upped water intake and prune juice to keep me regular! Works great!

Five: cut back my drinking. I didn't drink for two weeks starting this and I feel like that contributed a lot! I don't drink heavily but was having a few beers during the week and on the weekend. But while I stopped it helped the healing.

Six: diet. For two weeks I watched what I ate the best I could. I'm still continuing but after eating pizza (which i feared Bc all the cheese) I still passed stool with ease.

With these six changes I made, it's kept things moving awesomely. I can't tell you how great it's been to let it flow and there be no pain showing up hours later!

I wish you all good luck and hope this helps! Never give up!

Honestly I had a fissure.. it only took a month after seeing the dr and we decided to get a fissurectomy/sphincterotomy. .. I got it done about 2 weeks ago and I must say it'san easy process... II'm still healing but I can tell it's much easier. Bit if you want to try home remedies this is what they told me to do for after my surgery; use tucks to clean and lessen pain, intake a lot of water and fiber and use stool softness and moral axto make stools softer... also if the tucks get to be too harsh ( they were for me) you can get this lotion stuff called balneol. It works amazing for cleaning and keeping you comfortable. .. but I suggest everyone to go to ur dr and get it checked. Like I said.. the surgery isn't bad at all n I was home same day n cleared to go back to work 2 days after the surgert. I hope this helped! Good luck!

Hello,

I am having a similar issue, the first time it happened I was mortified. It was like passing glass and I am still terrified of going to the bathroom. For a few days I ate only fruits and yogurt and that helped a lot. The bleeding completely stopped. The pain was still there but significantly less and I thought I will be fine so I tried to ear normally again. But the whole thing started all over again. The pain the bleeding. I dont know what to do at this point, I'm just going to give up on eating any hard food for a while I think. I am really afraid of surgery, reading about other people's experiences though gives me some solace that at the very least I am not alone.Due to the weird nature of this problem I am embarrassed to explain it to my friends and colleagues.

What ointment is this may i Know?

Hello all, I have found the perfect regiment for fissures. I have been suffering for months now, and had used numerous remedies to no avail. I went to a forum, and used a few remedies, until I came up with this coctail. Each night before you goto bed insert a suppository, and take Metamucil, or stool softner. In the am saturate the fissure with coconut oil before your bowel movement. Now, after the bowel movement you must to do this: Wipe clean with baby wipes, and coconut oil. Sit in tub with a little warm water about 5 minutes, and mix the water with coconut oil. When you get out of the tub, repeat the baby wipe, and oil, then apply over the counter lidocane. Lastly, take a 500 MG aspirin. So, suppositories, stool softner, wipes, oil, bath, lidocane, and asprin........pain free, and my fissure is almost completely healed :)

Hi all,
I'm 48 and I've been a vegetarian for 30 years. I too have been dealing with fissures for Over 2 months. I tried ointment and suppositories and nothing worked. I was also given nitroglycerin ointment and unfortunately, that didn't work either. I finally got Botox injections and that releaved the pain. But after a couple of days I still felt discomfort after going to the toilet. I went back to the doctor and he discovered I had an abscess. He made a slight incision and drained it. That dramatically eased the pain. Going to the toilet is longer a scary experience. I now feel the fissures getting harder, hopefully that's a sign that it healing. I have a follow up next week, hopefully the doctor will say the same. Remember, the discomfort you feel if the pain lingered too long, you could also have an abscess.
Take care all, it's one of the worst experiences I've ever had but due diligence is key.

Same thing has happened to me I'm a 19 year old girl not over weight and don't have a too bad diet I drink 2 litres of water a day, 2 years ago I got a fissure from straing to go to the loo. I kept going to the doctors crying in agony but they kept thinking it was hemoriods. 2 years later it's not a chronic tear in my back passage, I've had 2 lots of Botox injections sadly it's not healing. The next option is to have my muscle cut open which will leave me with 100 different problems such as not being able to hold my stool or urine in. PLEASE GO TO THE DOCTORS EARLY!! Don't wait don't be scared to go I waited 2 years and now I've damaged myself for the long run and I'm only 19. Please please go and get looked at