I was just wondering if I'm the only one who never heard of or knew anything about the possibility of an anal fissure until it was too late? With all the public announcements about STDs, cancer, West Nile virus, and even hemorrhoids, seems like I should have known this could happen. I mean I knew I was having problems with difficult BMs, especially after a long day of airplane flights, but I certainly would like to think I would have done something about this had I known.

Boy do I agree! I too had no idea what an anal fissure even was..had never heard of it.. And why haven't they come up with a drug to permanently fix fissures?

Nope, I'd never heard of them either. I thought my problem was hemorrhoids until my doc mentioned anal fissure. Once I hit google, I knew I'd found my problem.

I knew pretty much it was a fissure when I got that much pain. I've never had hemorrhoids, but I know they don't cause that kind of excruciating pain. My GP misdiagnosed me with proctitis (most regular doctors know next to nothing about fissures). I knew darn well it wasn't that and a CRS confirmed it.
I had a fissure (or two) when I was a little kid and had a lot of issues with constipation. My doctor diagnosed it. It went away on its own, though, when the constipation issues were resolved. I think I may have had one in my teens, as well, but it also healed up quickly. So, sadly this isn't my first experience with them and I think I'm just genetically predisposed to them. : ( Constipation doesn't seem to be the cause of my current one, either. I really think stress is the main issue in my case (besides poor anatomy down there), which causes my sphincter muscle to tighten up horribly.
I just hope this one goes away, as well. I REALLY don't want to get the surgery, but I'm prepared for it if that's what it takes to get my life back to normal.

No, I had no idea about fissures either until I got mine. I also thought it was hems for about a week and treated it accordingly, until the pain got that bad I had to go for emergency treatment.........
Considering it's a pretty common and an extremely painful condition, you'd think there would be better education and public awareness about anal care & hygiene generally.
The amount of times now I've been in public toilets & thought what a sensible idea it would be to have signs up on the doors urging people to look after their bottoms and never to strain whilst on the job!!!

I never knew about mine until I looked it up on the internet. I was having difficult BMs and tons of pain down there for YEARS before I looked it up. First, I thought it was a hemmy and so did my doc... unfortunately, it didn't take long for the pain to get worse and now I'm stuck with this re-tear.
I'm sending luck to all of you!