I've been reading this forum for a long time and I want to thank you all for sharing your stories. It's gotten me through some rough nights. I'm a 45 yo female. I believe I have a fissure. I've suffered from constipation and hard stools pretty much since birth. About 1.5 years ago I had particularly bad bm and there was quite a bit of blood. For some time thereafter I had pain during bm's and blood. I assumed hemeroids. After awhile I started experiencing excruciating pain about an hour after the bm. It lasted for hours. I was very scared but stumbled upon this forum and read about sphincter spasm. The description fit perfectly. My doctor was no help and wouldn't send me to a specialist. I've never been actually examined. I have hemeroids and sentinel piles. I've been to gp, er, pelvic floor physiotherapist, osteopath. I was on dialtiziem, gave me a rash. I've managed to get my bm's soft by taking magnesium and vit C supplements, my naturopath helped with that. It's been months since I've bled. I now have nitro and lidocaine as well as nifedipine. From other posts I was hoping they would stop the spasms. They haven't. It's only been two days of using them, and maybe I was foolish, but I hoped they would work immediately. I re read some posts looking for timelines and didn't see anything. Appreciate any first hand info on how long it took for these creams to stop spasms. Getting quite depressed that I have to suffer for 6-8 hours every night after my bm.

Hi sorry to hear your suffering. Sometimes the creams can take a while to stop the spasms. I had diliatzem too and was allergic. So I was given GTN which helped my spasms from the first application. It didn't ever stop them completely but it took the pain down from a ten where I was literally sobbing in agony for a good 8 hours a day to a five where I could carry on with my days like a normal human.
I would give the cream a bit longer and then if it's still not working ask for GTN I know some on here use it alongside the nifedipine.
Also you could try asking for some gabapentin as this painkiller really does help with spasm pain
Good luck

Thank you so much for the reply! That's very helpful, I'll ask about that medication and keep going with the cream. All the best to you.