I understand the pain of an anal fissure. Mine occurred during a routine colonoscopy. (When it occurred, the pain brought me out of my state of sedation with a yelp, and I heard the physician tell the assistant to give me more sedation. ) Afterwards she didn’t tell me what happened so I assumed that the resulting pain and bleeding that flared up periodically was caused by hemorrhoids. It wasn’t until I went to see a colon/rectal surgeon that I found out it was a fissure and not hemorrhoids and I was scheduled for surgery.

A few days after surgery, a bout of constipation caused the fissure to begin reopening. The surgeon gave me a prescription for a compounded nifedipine ointment that worked wonders and the fissure site finally healed completely. Since then, I’ve learned that in many cases that particular compounded ointment can heal fissures without surgery. It may be worth a try.