Hi I am Jen 36 year old female and been reading this site for about a couple of months and thought I would share my story. June of 2016 is when my pain started. Wasn't too bad at first, I had started riding a bike in the spring and as the weather heated up I thought it was just a heat rash that kept coming back. It started a mild itchy and burny kind of pain, completely tolerable. Progressively got worse over the weeks. End of Julyish is when I think the pain really kind of started to take over my life. The pain was more frequent and more intense. It got to the point that 20-30 min after my morning BM the pain would start up and I couldn't function for sometimes hours if not the rest of the day. I now know it was the spams that were the cause of my debilitating pain. I had no life, my only life was dealing with the pain. I was missing work, the only time I would get any relief was laying on my left side on the floor, I was puking from the pain daily....literally could not do anything but lay there. The days I did go into work I spent most of the day laying on the floor. I was so embarrassed to tell people what the problem was. I convinced myself it was hemorrhoids and was treating it with creams and taking way too much inprophen. It just kept getting worse. Ended up in the ER end of August cause I wasn't eating, puking, in the worst pain I could ever imagine...I thought I was dying. They did CT scan and said it looks normal, did an anal exam and said it's not hemorrhoids. Gave me fluids, an rx for tramidol and a referral to a CRS. Went to CRS the next week. The only thing out of the ordinary she saw during my exam was a small amount of puss coming from the lining inside my ass. She scheduled me for an EUA with a possible fistulotomy for sept. 27th. I suffer from horrible anxiety especially when it comes to medical situations, for me having to have a surgery was like a nightmare coming true. I was a disaster the morning of surgery, I was scared out of my mind. I did have to do an enema before I went to the hospital that went better that I thought it would. Got to the hospital and could not make myself go in, I was dry heaving in the parking lot I was so scared. My sister had to go get a nurse to come out and convince me to go in lol. They gave me something to calm me when I got in there, after that everything went smooth. The procedure itself took 40 min then I was in recovery for I think about 2 hours then sent home. The dr said I had gotten a tear that developed an abscess then developed a fistula. Stool getting in the fistula is what would cause the horrific pain/spasms. She cut open the fistula, drained the abscess and put a couple dissolvable stitches in. The actual pain from surgery wasn't bad at all, never took more than ibprophen. I wore a pad for about a week because I bled very lightly. I had a panic attack the right before my first BM but it was fine. The first two days after surgery I had the same intense pain 20-30 min after my BM's as I did before the surgery but they didn't last nearly as long as before but that improved drastically by the 3rd day. It has now been just over a month since my surgery and I am doing really well. I still have a brief spell of pain in the morning but is absolutely no where near the intensity it was before, some days hardly any at all and it always only lasts a couple of min. Sitting at work all day gives me a sore feeling down there some days. I also have had a couple of days here and there with zero pain. I think diet plays a role...when I don't eat so good, the next day I get a little more pain. My follow up was this past Monday and my CRS says it looks good but just not completely healed yet, she said that's why I still get a little pain. She has assured my that my bike riding did not cause this, that a hard stool did and told me at this point I can start riding again. I am not convinced that my bike was not the cause. I had been riding 5 days a week a few hours at a time (lost 70 lbs which is a good thing as I am over weight)I am addicted to the thing lol. I never had a problem in this Dept before I started riding this past spring. I went for a 20 min ride on Monday and an hour ride on Tuesday and now my butt is super sore. I want to believe the Dr that it's perfectly fine to ride my bike again because I need it in my life but I am so scared I will hurt it all over again. I wish there was more info out there about fistula surgery and biking. I don't understand how biking won't hurt it. Just FYI I still do sitz bath twice a day, i use hemorrhoid cream before a BM just to try and protect it, for the most part I am eating healthier, I am down to only taking 2 IBprophen a day, only wipe with baby wipes and walk about 3 days a week. I think I will hold off on biking until my next follow up on Dec 5th. I cant imagine injuring it again and having to start all over. If anyone on here is a biker and has any experience or info they want to share I would really appreciate it. This website is a godsend, through the whole nightmare it has help just knowing I was not alone.

Riding a bike does not cause fissure or fistula, but after you have one it is very painful thing to do. I syopped using my bike after i got fissure. Maybe you can start biking again after you are fully healed, but before that sadly it will most likely hurt.