How to get rid of hemorrhoids fast

You can get rid of the worst of a hemorrhoid flare faster than the lump itself disappears. The next 48 hours are for pain, swelling, and the bowel movement you are putting off. The two weeks after that are for keeping stools soft so the flare does not start again.

The full ladder, from creams through office procedures to surgery, is in hemorrhoid treatment. This page is the short plan: what to do today, what to keep doing through day 14, and the signs that you should go to a clinic instead of soaking again.

External hemorrhoid symptoms often ease within a few days ³. The NHS piles page says piles often get better on their own after a few days ². A clot under the skin is a different clock. In one series, symptoms settled in an average of 24 days with conservative care and in 3.9 days after the clot was cut out ¹⁸. The full timeline by type is in how long do hemorrhoids last.

What to do in the next 48 hours

Do these four things today. None of them requires a procedure.

Warm soaks

The NIDDK treatment page says to sit in warm water, a sitz bath, several times a day to relieve pain ¹. A sitz bath is just a few inches of water over the anal area, in a basin on the toilet or in a bathtub. The NHS says a warm bath eases itching and pain, and to pat dry instead of rubbing ².

How strong is that advice? The AGA expert review on hemorrhoids says sitz baths are often recommended and that the scientific data are limited ¹³. A 2005 review came to the same conclusion: few trials, and a note that cold sitz baths reduced swelling more than warm ones in the reports they found, while patients tended to prefer warm water ⁹.

What warm water does to the muscle is better measured. In a manometry study, resting anal pressure fell after the anus was immersed in 40°C water, and it did not fall in water at 5°C or at room temperature ¹⁰. After a 5 minute soak at 40°C, the lower pressure lasted about 15 minutes in people without anorectal problems and about 30 minutes in people who had them ¹⁰. A separate study of the warm-water bath pointed to relaxation of the internal anal sphincter, the ring of muscle that stays tight at rest, as the reason pain eases ¹¹. So a soak is a short comfort tool you can repeat several times today. Water temperature, soak length, and what not to pour in are in how to take a sitz bath.

Cold between soaks

The NHS says to use an ice pack wrapped in a towel to ease discomfort ².

One randomized trial did compare ice packing with warm sitz baths, in 166 people right after hemorrhoidectomy, not during an ordinary flare ¹². Ice packing produced lower pain scores within 16 hours, less swelling at 24 hours (76.8 percent with no or mild swelling, versus 56.0 percent after warm sitz baths), and lower morphine use in the first day. That is a recovery-room result. It supports using cold for throbbing and swelling, and it does not mean you should skip warm soaks at home. When to pick each one during a normal flare is laid out in ice or heat for hemorrhoids.

Soften the next stool before it happens

NIDDK tells you not to strain ¹. Start the stool plan with the next meal so later bowel movements are less of a fight.

NIDDK says to eat high-fiber foods, consider a fiber supplement such as psyllium, drink water or other nonalcoholic liquids, and do not strain ¹. The fiber target NIDDK cites from the Dietary Guidelines is 14 grams per 1,000 calories, or 28 grams a day on a 2,000-calorie diet ⁵. Only about 5 percent of people meet the recommendation, so food alone often falls short on day 1 ¹⁹.

A meta-analysis of seven fiber trials in people with hemorrhoids found the chance of symptoms persisting fell by 47 percent (relative risk 0.53) and the chance of bleeding fell by 50 percent (relative risk 0.50) ⁴. Follow-up in those trials was usually around 6 weeks and again at 3 months ⁴. You will not see that result by tomorrow night. In the psyllium trial, the gap in bowel-movement frequency showed up in the second week of treatment ⁷.

In a constipation trial, not a hemorrhoid trial, psyllium at 5.1 grams twice a day increased stool water more than docusate sodium at 100 mg twice a day ⁷. By the second treatment week, bowel movements averaged 3.5 a week on psyllium and 2.9 on docusate ⁷. Another constipation trial used psyllium at 12 grams a day, two green kiwifruits a day, or 100 grams of prunes a day for 4 weeks. Straining improved with all three by weeks 3 and 4 ⁸. Fiber can cause gas. Raise the dose over several days instead of taking a full scoop at once, and drink water with it.

Extra water matters most when fiber is already in the diet. In adults with constipation who were eating about 25 grams of fiber a day, the group asked to drink 2 liters of water (they averaged 2.1 liters) had more frequent stools than the group that averaged 1.1 liters ⁶. That was a two-month constipation study. For this week, pair each fiber dose with a full glass, and keep a bottle nearby.

A stool softener still has a job if you are skipping bowel movements because of pain, or if a clinician told you to use one for a few days after a procedure or a birth. It is the bridge. Fiber is the part the hemorrhoid trials actually tested. Which one to buy, and when a laxative is the wrong tool, is in stool softener, fiber, or laxative.

A cream for today, with a stop date

NIDDK says over-the-counter creams, ointments, or suppositories may ease mild pain, swelling, and itching of external hemorrhoids, and that doctors most often recommend those products for 1 week ¹. The NHS instructions for hydrocortisone for piles say not to use hydrocortisone treatments for more than 7 days ¹⁴. The AGA review allows topical steroids for no more than 2 weeks at a time, and says there is little trial data that creams work ¹³. Follow the label. If it says 7 days, stop on day 7 even if you still have some itch.

For pain tonight, a numbing cream (a lidocaine cream is the type studies usually name) is the one aimed at soreness. Hydrocortisone is the one aimed at itch. How they differ is in anti-itch or numbing cream. Creams, pads, and wipes as a group are in over-the-counter hemorrhoid treatment.

For pain pills, the NHS says paracetamol, which is acetaminophen, if piles hurt ². Do not take ibuprofen if you are bleeding ². Do not take codeine. It can cause constipation ². NIDDK also lists ibuprofen, naproxen, and aspirin ¹. If there is blood, stay with acetaminophen and follow the bottle.

What to do over the next two weeks

The 48 hour push is the start. The two weeks are what decide whether the flare quiets down.

If day 8 feels the same as day 1, another week of the same cream is the wrong next step. That is the moment for when to see a doctor for hemorrhoids. If you are improving, do not stop the fiber just because the itch faded. The bleeding benefit in trials was measured over weeks, not over a weekend ⁴.

Cleaning matters in this stretch. The NHS says to keep the area clean and dry and to pat, not rub ². MedlinePlus notes that too much rubbing or cleaning can make symptoms worse ³. If you want to rinse instead of wipe, what the bidet studies actually found is in is a bidet good for hemorrhoids?.

Toilet habits that make the next bowel movement easier

Go when you feel the urge. The NHS says not to ignore it, not to push hard, and not to stay on the toilet longer than you need ². NIDDK says the same about straining and long sits ¹.

A footstool changes the angle of your hips so your knees sit above them. In 28 healthy volunteers, squatting reduced both the time to feel empty and the effort of straining compared with sitting on a standard toilet, in every person in the study ¹⁶. In a later study of 52 healthy adults, a defecation posture device (a footstool) reduced straining (odds ratio 0.23) and made a feeling of emptiness more likely (odds ratio 3.64). Without the stool, bowel movements lasted about 1.25 times as long ¹⁵. These were not hemorrhoid patients. They are the best measurements we have of the posture itself. The practical version is in toilet habits that help hemorrhoids.

Phones stretch the sit. In a colonoscopy study of 125 adults, 66 percent used a smartphone on the toilet. Among phone users, 37.3 percent stayed more than 5 minutes, compared with 7.1 percent of people who did not use a phone. After adjustment for age, sex, body size, exercise, straining, and fiber, phone use on the toilet was tied to a 46 percent higher risk of hemorrhoids ¹⁷. Leave the phone outside for the next two weeks. The study details are in does scrolling on the toilet cause hemorrhoids?.

What to buy if you do not own anything yet

A basin, a wrapped cold pack, and a fiber you will actually take cover the 48 hour list. Cream is optional and time-limited, as above.

Basins are compared on the best sitz baths. Cold packs are on the best ice packs for hemorrhoids. If a drinkable powder is not going to happen in your kitchen, capsule and gummy options are on the best fiber supplements for hemorrhoids. Short-term softeners, for the bridge described above, are on the best stool softeners for hemorrhoids.

When fast relief means seeing a doctor

A sudden hard lump that makes sitting unbearable is often a thrombosed external hemorrhoid, a clot in a vein under the skin. Home soaks and cold still help the pain. They do not empty the clot. In the series above, excision was faster (3.9 days versus 24 days) and recurrence was lower (6.3 percent after surgery, 25.4 percent after conservative care) ¹⁸. A separate trial tested a prescription ointment, 0.3 percent nifedipine with 1.5 percent lidocaine, against lidocaine alone, for two weeks. At 7 days, pain was gone in 86 percent of the nifedipine group and 50 percent of the lidocaine group. At 14 days, the clot had resolved in 92 percent versus 45.8 percent ²². That ointment is not a standard drugstore cream. If the lump appeared in the last day or two and the pain is severe, the faster paths are at a clinic. How to recognize one is in a thrombosed hemorrhoid. Do not try to drain it yourself, for the reasons in can you pop a hemorrhoid.

Sharp, tearing pain with the bowel movement is more often an anal fissure than a hemorrhoid. The AGA review makes that distinction, and it says hemorrhoids cause significant pain when they are acutely thrombosed ¹³. Sorting the two is in hemorrhoid or anal fissure.

Pregnancy changes the shopping list. A review for clinicians suggests fiber, stool softeners, more liquid, and toilet habits, and says most symptoms ease after birth ²¹. Check any medicated cream with your obstetric provider before you use it. The pregnancy plan is in hemorrhoids during pregnancy.

If you are not sure whether this is a home-care day or a clinic day, the hemorrhoid symptom checker walks through the same questions. Home care that has done nothing by the end of a week needs a clinician ^1,3.

NIDDK says to get care right away for severe anal pain and rectal bleeding, particularly with abdominal discomfort, diarrhea, or fever ¹. The NHS says nonstop bleeding, a lot of blood, large clots, or severe pain need emergency care ². The US Preventive Services Task Force recommends colon cancer screening starting at age 45 for adults at average risk ²⁰. New bleeding at that age should be checked, even when a hemorrhoid seems like the obvious cause ³.