by concernedAF » 30 Sep 2016, 20:45
Hi everyone. I came across this forum searching the internet for advice on post-anal fissure life. Here's my deal: For starters, I'm a young gay guy and this year I became truly sexually active. Basically this means I started having anal sex for the first time & embracing my sexuality. Anyway, about a month ago, on a Saturday, I had sex with a guy (receiving). We used a condom and lube, but the sex was a little rough. I was experiencing *slight* discomfort the entire time but didn't think much of it. A couple of days later I felt a small itch in my rectal area, as if it was tender, but honestly this has happened before and is by no means painful or irritating so I figured it'd go away. Problem is- I was constipated that week. I believe this exacerbated the issue and I ended up getting an anal fissure. By the next Saturday, I was in a lot of pain-- could barely sit directly on my butt, painful BMs, etc. So that night I began googling what it could be. I came across anal fissures and my symptoms seemed to line up very closely to a fissure so that's how I began treating it. That Saturday night I soaked in a warm bath and took some ibuprofen. The next day I got a stool softener, flushable wipes, and continued to soak in the tub now with coconut oil, which I was also applying to the rectal area. It was a labor day weekend so I had to wait until Tues. to go to the doctor. My doctor looked at it and said it appeared I was just irritated down there. He gave me some creams to use. Jump to now- after a couple of weeks of painful BMs, then a rectal area that actually WAS irritated (rubbed raw I believe from the moisture of creams/oil and inability to heal in FL heat + walking around a campus all day). FINALLY all this cleared up last week. I'm almost completely healed now I believe. I've tested the area with my finger a couple of times the past 2 days and it's still a little sensitive. My main issue at this point is this: I enjoy anal sex, and I enjoy bottoming, and I want to be able to do that but I'm going to be enormously paranoid the first time I engage in anal sex after this incident. My question is two-fold: what's the advice for anal sex after a fissure that appears to be acute (& may not have even been a fissure at all, another worry is I don't even know exactly what this was. Should I have a doctor check it out & see what it was/what it's going to be going forward?)? And once I'm fully healed and seem ready to have sex again, how to I get over my paranoia? I'm so terrified this will just happen again & really don't want to go thru the pain a 2nd, 3rd, 4th time.