The best hemorrhoid products, by type

The best hemorrhoid product is the one that matches the symptom you have today. Burning and itching on the outside skin call for a cream or ointment. Pressure or a swollen feeling inside calls for a suppository. If sitting is the problem, a cushion helps this afternoon, and softer stools help the next few days.

Hemorrhoids account for nearly 4 million office and emergency visits a year in the United States, the third most common outpatient gut diagnosis ². Most flares still settle with home care. The NIDDK’s page on hemorrhoid treatment lists fiber, fluids, short toilet sits, a warm soak, and a store-bought cream, ointment, or suppository for mild pain, swelling, and itching. Doctors most often suggest using those store products for about a week ¹.

This page names our top pick in each category and says who it is for. The full shortlists live on the guides linked below. If you are not sure what you are feeling, start with the hemorrhoid treatment overview or the symptom checker.

Browse every product guide

The cards higher on this page open every guide. Here is who each one is for.

• The best hemorrhoid creams are for burning, itching, and soreness on skin you can reach. The guide compares an everyday numbing cream, a stronger one for sharp pain, a cooling gel, a small starter kit, and a low-odor cream with a shorter review record.
• The best hemorrhoid ointments are for raw skin, for a tube labeled for inside and outside, and for severe outside pain that a lighter cream did not calm. One pick is a plain balm for pregnancy and the weeks after birth.
• The best hemorrhoid suppositories are for swelling and discomfort inside, especially at night. The guide also includes a cold pack if you would rather not insert anything.
• The best ice packs are for throbbing and swelling when you want cold without medicine, including the first days after a vaginal birth.
• The best hemorrhoid pillows are for people who have to sit: a desk, a car, a hard chair, or a larger body. A donut is for a short sore spell. A seat cushion is for long days.
• The best sitz baths are for warm soaks after a bowel movement, after birth, or after surgery. The guide includes a roomier basin if a standard seat feels narrow.
• The best hemorrhoid wipes are for replacing dry toilet paper during a flare, for travel, for skin that stings when you wipe, and for cooling pads after birth or surgery.
• The best hemorrhoid sprays are for rinsing when wiping hurts, at home or away from home. One pick is a soothing spray for days when a full soak is impractical.
• The best bidets are for a fixture you leave on the toilet so rinsing replaces wiping. Keep the water pressure low on sore skin.
• The best hemorrhoid pills cover flavonoid supplements studied during flare-ups, plus fiber capsules for people who will not drink a powder.
• The best stool softeners are for short-term use after birth or surgery. That guide also explains when a fiber capsule is the better daily habit.
• The best fiber supplements are the product type with the strongest trial evidence for bleeding and lingering symptoms, from plain psyllium to capsules and gummies.
• The best toilet stools raise your knees on a standard toilet, a tall toilet, a shared bathroom, or a trip.
• The best products for pregnancy and after birth cover hemorrhoids and perineal soreness in pregnancy and the weeks after a vaginal birth, with notes on what to check with your obstetric provider.

How we choose products

Each guide starts with listings that already had strong overall ratings from a large number of buyers. We then read recent reviews and kept the comments that showed up again and again: what eased, how soon, and what annoyed people. A product with a smaller review record can still appear when those comments are consistent and the product has a clear job. The page says so when that happens.

We weigh that against the research for the product type, not a claim on the box. Fiber has randomized trials. Creams, ointments, suppositories, soaks, and cushions mostly have smaller studies, older studies, or guidance from health agencies on how to use them safely. A popular listing is not the same as a trial. No brand pays for a place on these lists. The affiliate disclosure explains the Amazon links, and the editorial policy explains how a page gets updated.

We skipped listings where recent reviews kept describing the same failure, such as a basin that tips, a cushion that collapses, or a product that stings more often than it soothes. We also did not rank by price. If a tube is small and runs out when you use it several times a day, the review says that in plain language.

What the research says about these products

A 2006 meta-analysis of seven fiber trials pooled 378 people with symptomatic hemorrhoids. Fiber cut the risk of bleeding by about half (relative risk 0.50) and cut the risk that symptoms would not improve by 47% (relative risk 0.53). Follow-up was often at six weeks and again at three months, with a similar pattern at both points ³. Pain, itching, and prolapse looked better in some trials, but the confidence intervals were wide enough to include no effect ³.

A 2019 review of hemorrhoid research is blunter about everything else you can buy. Medical therapies have not been formally studied except for fiber, and even the fiber results have been inconsistent across studies ². That is why these pages separate “buyers say this eases a flare” from “a trial showed this changes bleeding.”

Store creams still have a job. NIDDK says creams, ointments, or suppositories may relieve mild pain, swelling, and itching of external hemorrhoids, meaning the ones under the skin around the anus. The usual advice is about a week, then a doctor if symptoms are still there or the skin gets dry or rashy ¹. MedlinePlus lists hydrocortisone creams for pain and swelling, numbing creams such as lidocaine for pain, and witch hazel on a cotton swab for itch ⁴. Family physicians describe the same first step: fiber, fluids, stool softeners, topical products, and sitz baths, with office procedures if that fails ⁵. The details of what those studies can and cannot support are on our over-the-counter treatment guide.

Warm water is in every home plan, and the trial record is thinner than the advice. A 2005 review of sitz baths found little randomized evidence and noted burns as a real risk if the water is too hot ⁷. In a lab study, warm water lowered resting pressure in the anal canal, including in people with hemorrhoids, and the drop lasted after they got out ⁸. Cold water did not lower that pressure ⁹. After hemorrhoid surgery, a 2025 trial of 166 people found ice packing eased pain more than warm sitz baths in the first 16 hours, with less swelling at 24 hours ¹⁰. For an ordinary flare, NHS advice on piles still suggests a warm bath and an ice pack wrapped in a towel ¹³. Which one to use today is covered in ice or heat for hemorrhoids.

Toilet posture has cleaner numbers than creams. In 52 adults, a footstool made straining less common (odds ratio 0.23) and a feeling of complete emptying more common (odds ratio 3.64). Without the stool, bowel movements took about 1.25 times as long ¹¹. An earlier study of 28 volunteers found that squatting cut both the time and the effort compared with sitting on a standard toilet ¹². The 7 inch stool on this page is for that knees-up position on a normal-height toilet. Read the toilet stool guide if your toilet is taller.

A sudden painful lump is a different problem. It is often a clot in an external hemorrhoid, called a thrombosed hemorrhoid. In a chart review, symptoms settled in about 24 days with conservative care and in about 3.9 days when the clot was removed ⁶. Most people treated without surgery did get better ⁶. Excision in the first two or three days can cut the pain sharply if a doctor offers it ⁵. Our guide to a thrombosed hemorrhoid walks through that choice. Many small flares ease on their own within days to a couple of weeks. The NHS says piles often improve after a few days of home care ¹³.

Pregnancy changes the safety question. A Canadian review noted that common topical hemorrhoid products had not been formally tested for safety in pregnancy, and that symptoms often fade after birth ¹⁵. The NHS page on hydrocortisone for piles in pregnancy says those creams, ointments, and suppositories can be used in pregnancy because only a small amount reaches the blood ¹⁷. A study of 204 women who used a hydrocortisone-and-numbing foam in the third trimester found no increase in prematurity or birth complications compared with women who were not exposed ¹⁶. Ask your obstetric provider anyway, and use the pregnancy hemorrhoid guide before you pick a medicated tube.

Where to start if you are not sure

Use the row that matches the worst symptom today. You can combine a skin product with fiber. You do not need every row.

Bleeding is the row people worry about most. Internal hemorrhoids often bleed and rarely hurt. External hemorrhoids itch and ache, and they hurt a lot if a clot forms. A cream does not replace a look at the blood. Read what bleeding from hemorrhoids usually means if the paper is bright red and you feel well otherwise.

A week of home care

This is the plan NIDDK and MedlinePlus describe, with timings you can actually follow ^1,4.

1. Start fiber today, with a full glass of water. Psyllium is the type used in most of the hemorrhoid trials ³. If you want a food plan instead of a tub, use the hemorrhoid diet and the fiber calculator. The fiber guide linked above compares powders, capsules, and gummies. Increase the dose over several days so you are less likely to get gassy.
2. Keep toilet sits short. Do not strain, and do not stay to scroll. Put your feet on a stool so your knees are above your hips ^11,12. The steps are in toilet habits for hemorrhoids. The toilet stool guide linked above covers height.
3. Soak in warm water for 10 to 15 minutes, a few times a day, including after a bowel movement ⁴. The water should feel warm, not hot enough to burn ⁷. How to take a sitz bath covers the water, the timing, and the basin.
4. For skin symptoms, apply a cream or ointment after you gently pat dry. Follow the label. Plan on about a week unless a doctor has told you otherwise ¹. Stop if you get a rash or the skin turns dry and sore ¹.
5. For throbbing, use an ice pack wrapped in a towel for short sessions ¹³. Buyers of the cold pack on this page get about 15 to 20 minutes of cold per pack. After surgery, ice beat warm soaks for the first 16 hours in one trial ¹⁰. That result is about surgical pain, not a promise for every home flare.
6. If you need a pain pill and you are bleeding, the NHS says to skip ibuprofen ¹³. NIDDK lists acetaminophen, ibuprofen, naproxen, and aspirin as options for pain in general ¹. Ask a pharmacist which one fits you.
7. If day 7 feels the same as day 1, stop adding products and book a visit. Office treatments such as banding exist for internal hemorrhoids that keep bleeding or slipping out. The 48-hour relief plan is the short version of steps 1 to 5. How to prevent hemorrhoids is what you keep doing after the flare fades.

GuideHow to get rid of hemorrhoids fast

A 48-hour and two-week plan for hemorrhoids: sitz baths, cold packs, fiber, water, short-term creams, and when to see a doctor.

When home products are not enough

Another tube is the wrong next step when the symptoms could be something other than a hemorrhoid. The American Cancer Society’s page on colorectal cancer symptoms lists blood that makes the stool look dark brown or black, a change in bowel habits that lasts more than a few days, belly pain, weakness, and unintended weight loss ¹⁸. Hemorrhoids can cause bleeding too, which is why those overlaps need a person to sort them out. The US Preventive Services Task Force recommends colon cancer screening starting at age 45 for adults at average risk ¹⁴.

NIDDK says to get care right away for severe anal pain and rectal bleeding, particularly with belly discomfort, diarrhea, or fever ¹. MedlinePlus says to call if home care is not helping, and to get help immediately if you lose a lot of blood or feel faint ⁴. What happens at the visit is covered in when to see a doctor for hemorrhoids.