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When to see a doctor
By Mayo Clinic staff
Seek immediate medical attention
Have someone drive you to urgent care or the emergency room if you develop:
- A significant amount of rectal bleeding or bleeding that won't stop, particularly if accompanied by lightheadedness, dizziness or feeling faint
- Anal pain that gets much worse, spreads or is accompanied by fever, chills or anal discharge
Schedule a doctor's visit
Make an appointment with your doctor if your pain lasts more than a few days and self-care remedies aren't helping.
A hemorrhoid that develops quickly or is particularly painful may have formed a blood clot inside (thrombosed). Removing the clot within the first 48 hours often gives the most relief, so request a timely appointment with your doctor. The blood clot of a thrombosed hemorrhoid, although painful, can't break loose and travel, so it won't cause any of the complications — such as stroke — associated with blood clots that form in other parts of the body.
See your doctor for rectal bleeding, particularly if you're older than 40, to rule out rare, but serious, conditions, such as colon cancer.
Self-care
Depending on the cause of your anal pain, there are some measures you can try at home to get relief. They include:
- Eating more fruits, vegetables and whole grains, exercise daily, and take stool softeners, if needed, to facilitate bowel movements, reduce straining and ease pain.
- Sitting in a tub of hot water up to your hips — known as a sitz bath — several times a day to ease the pain of hemorrhoids, anal fissures or rectal muscle spasms.
- Applying over-the-counter hemorrhoid cream for hemorrhoids or hydrocortisone cream for anal fissures.
- Taking an over-the-counter pain reliever such as acetaminophen (Tylenol, others), aspirin or ibuprofen (Advil, Motrin, others).
- Kahan S, et al. Rectal pain. In: Kahan S, et al. In a Page Signs and Symptoms. 2nd ed. Philadelphia, Pa.: Wolters Kluwer Health Lippincott Williams & Wilkins; 2009:282.
- Ellis H. Anorectal pain. In: Kinirons M, et al. French's Index of Differential Diagnosis. 14th ed. New York, N.Y.: Oxford University Press; 2005:375.
- Marcello PW. Diseases of the anorectum. In: Feldman M, et al. Sleisenger & Fordtran's Gastrointestinal and Liver Disease: Pathophysiology, Diagnosis, Management. 9th ed. Philadelphia, Pa.: Saunders Elsevier; 2010. http://www.mdconsult.com/books/about.do?eid=4-u1.0-B978-1-4160-6189-2..X0001-7--TOP&isbn=978-1-4160-6189-2&about=true&uniqId=229935664-2192. Accessed Dec. 8, 2010.
- Wilkinson JM (expert opinion). Mayo Clinic, Rochester, Minn. Dec. 9, 2010.
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