My experience with hemorrhoids 38/m
Posting my experience with hemorrhoids because I felt reading medical sites were not really descriptive or helpful. Maybe this will be useful for someone experiencing the same.
It started when I felt something extra in my rectum while defecating and soon after that I started feeling pressure.
I had never before had any symptoms like this. It was not painful and I wondered what it was and though that I’ll have to visit a physician as it could be anything.
It came and went, started causing slight pain and then progressed in a few weeks to external hemorrhoids. I got one or two pea sized external hemorrhoids around the anus that appeared and slowly disappeared. I would feel sudden pressure and pain somewhere around my anus, e.g. close to the perineum and a new external hemorrhoid would appear which would cause discomfort and slight pain.
This was reassuring for me that it was hemorrhoids as the piles were soft to the touch and collapsible. It made me quite sure that they were not cancerous growths as such generally are hard masses and don’t shift places.
This phase was also accompanied by feeling pressure inside the rectum on a particular side like left and then it disappeared, getting something on the right and then it disappeared, then more generalized pressure and it got better and reappeared. The symptoms were accompanied by a small external hemorrhoid at times. These came in waves so first feeling pressure or getting a bump and then it dissipated in a few days until it again reappeared.
These came pretty much on their own and I don’t feel like any particular activity caused them. Not exercise, not defecating strenuously, not particular foods.
When I had flare ups I would have to lie down on my stomach on the bed with my rear elevated to relieve the pressure and discomfort. I washed myself with a bidet shower head and soap and applied Abilar wound balm to help with the itching, just something I had at hand.
My stool was without blood and otherwise normal. I had one episode of thin stool when the pressure inside the rectum was the worst and it was a bit worrying but it lasted only two days.
At this point I was about a month into the episode.
I read some people had benefits of taking copper and I had myself been supplementing daily with 15 mg zinc citrate for at least a year. As zinc interferes with copper absorption so I thought there might be something to it and that maybe my supplementation had caused an issue with connective tissue and caused my problems.
I stopped zinc supplementation and started taking 2 mg copper bisglycinate daily for a few weeks. The symptoms were still present but slowly over time started getting fewer with more time in between.
Now about 3 months since it began I have been without any symptoms for about a month.
I have been otherwise completely healthy, I am normal weight, I ate healthy food and exercised.
What caused it? No idea.
Did taking copper and stopping zinc help? No idea.
For me at least it seems like it was some temporary disorder, metabolic or whatever that caused swollen and inflamed hemorrhoids. Now everything is back to normal and I don’t think I could have avoided this by drinking more water, eating more fiber, changing excretion habits or anything.
Just posting this as I was searching online every source says that hemorrhoids appear and get better in a few days but this was more of a series of instances that lasted almost a few months.