by NeuropathicGuy » 18 Aug 2010, 20:56
Hrm it does sound like a spasm to me when you say that there's a tightening feeling which feels better once you pass gas or have a BM. I used to have that with gas. Not so much BMs in my case because it was always the pain that stopped me from getting all the stool out. Maybe if I'd been able to get past the pain, I'd have been limited by the spasm.
But I definitely had a lot of tightness when I had gas, it was as if the gas wanted to get out but couldn't because the sphincter was so tight. In fact I think that's exactly what was happening. I've heard others here describe the same sensation so I don't think it's an unusual fissure symptom. If you do have a spasm, consciously noticeable or not, it'll keep the anus "locked" pretty tight and make it tough for things to come out.
One other thing that bothered me to no end when my fissure was really bad was the fact that even urinating hurt real bad. Urinating (in men anyway -- not sure about women) requires pushing with the pelvic/anal muscles, and because my sphincter spasm was so bad (it was constantly in throbbing unrelenting pain), doing that was extremely uncomfortable, and I'd urinate in dribbles (sorry for TMI), taking several minutes before I was finished. Not sure why I decided to share that, but I guess my point is that fissures can cause a lot of different symptoms, which may or may not be described in the literature as classical fissure symptoms.
Oh yeah, my fissure was strong bleeder and in its acute phase, I could get blood by pushing (to pass either gas or stool) too.