Hi everyone. I'm a 28 year old male who has been experiencing an anal fissure for what I guess is a little less than a year now. I didn't realize it was a fissure until the past few weeks. I have had the same symptoms for awhile now, but I was ignorant of anal fissures and always just assumed it was an internal hemorrhoid. After having my symptoms worsen in the past month I researched anal fissures and realized that was what I am actually suffering from. I have to say that I currently do not have health insurance, so I can not go an see a doctor at the moment. I do know for sure it is a fissure because I looked at it with a mirror and it looks just like the fissures I've seen posted online. I also realized my symptoms do not match the typical symptoms of a hemorrhoid.

I came here to see if anyone else had a similar situation like me. After reading some of the horror stories of anal fissures, mine doesn't seem that bad. I have pain sometimes during a bowel movement, but not excruciating pain that some people suffer. I only rarely have bleeding, I believe this is happening only when the fissure is opening back up after somewhat healing. I had not started trying any at home treatments until the past two weeks because I always just thought "hey it's a hemorrhoid, can't really do anything for it." I realize now that my fissures were caused by very large bowels. I've actually never really had a problem with constipation. I believe my problem started due to drinking alcohol. After a night of drinking a lot of beer, the next morning I would have massive bowel movements. I would have stools that were thick and were literally over a foot long. It would be after these BMs that the little bit of bleeding would happen, followed by pain. My two biggest symptoms, though, are just burning and itching afterwards. I've never experienced the muscle spasms and horrible pain afterwards that everyone describes.

I have one symptom that I don't see most people describe. After a large bowel movement that reopens the fissure, I will have a slight incontinence afterwards. The most it would accumulate to would be having to go and wipe again an hour after a bowel movement, and there being a streak or particles of brown stool on the toilet paper. I was curious if anyone that has fissures have dealt with this symptom before or if this was a rare thing.

Hi Loomis & to the club! Not the best club to join but nonetheless there is a wealth of information & support on here to help get you through.

Is there any chance that you could visit just a General Practioner just once to get a solid diagnosis? By what you've described it sounds like your fissure is near the opening & visible to the naked eye? That way at least you could start to treat it accordingly.

Mine sort of started up like yours with just bleeding upon wiping & the burn & itch but because I was initially complacent it had progressively got worse. Save yourself from the pain if at all possible!

In regards to the incontinence that you describe, I've suffered from the same sort of scenario for years prior to being diagnosed with a fissure but for me it's a case of a skin tag (which I now know to be a sentinal pile) caused by acute IBS & the fissure. My hubby though whom has never had any bowel probs at all has complained about the same thing & jokingly we put it down to being an age thing, lol! In all seriousness not sure what causes this... perhaps a weaking in the muscles & again another question to ask the GP if you can visit one.

Keep us posted as to how you get on & wishing you a speedy recovery!

Kindest regards,
Poo-ologist