Advice centre / Treating haemorrhoids / Different treatments

Haemorrhoids, or piles, are a common and often uncomfortable condition that affects 5 million people in the UK every year. Fortunately, there are a variety of treatments available to help relieve the symptoms of haemorrhoids and provide relief from the discomfort they can cause.

What are symptom relieving haemorrhoid treatments?

The first line of treatment for haemorrhoids is often home care. This includes taking a warm bath several times a day, avoiding straining during bowel movements, and applying a cold compress to the affected area. Increasing dietary fibre, drinking plenty of fluids and exercising regularly can also help to reduce symptoms.

Medications are also available to help with symptom relief. Topical creams, ointments and suppositories can be used to reduce inflammation and itching, and oral medications can be used to reduce pain (read more about the options available to you to help relieve symptoms during a flare-up).

Constipation management and dietary advice

One of the most important factors in managing haemorrhoids is to alleviate constipation. To do this, it is important to eat a healthy and balanced diet, which includes plenty of dietary fibre. Foods that are high in fibre include fruits, vegetables, legumes, and whole grains. It is also important to ensure adequate fluid intake to help keep the stools soft. Regular exercise can help to promote regular bowel movements.

Lifestyle advice to aid healing of haemorrhoids

When dealing with haemorrhoids, it is important to maintain anal hygiene in order to reduce discomfort and promote healing. This includes wiping gently after each bowel movement and avoiding the use of any perfumed soaps or wipes in the anal area. Additionally, it is important to avoid straining during bowel movements and to use a stool softener if necessary. It is also beneficial to take regular sitz baths, which can help to reduce the discomfort and swelling caused by haemorrhoids.

Haemorrhoid cream

Simply put, haemorrhoid creams (or piles treatment cream) will help to soothe the haemorrhoid making it less irritable and frustrating to live with over a short period of time.

Haemorrhoid relief products are often described as topical treatments. Many of these products contain a relief-effective, anti-inflammatory active ingredient called hydrocortisone. This ingredient not only comes in the form of creams but is also found in ointments, suppositories and foams that are readily available from your pharmacy.

What are haemorrhoid creams?

Which haemorrhoid creams are the best?

Are creams an effective treatment for haemorrhoids?

For any haemorrhoid related queries or to organise an appointment with an eXroid consultant, please call us on 0800 999 3777 or click here for all other queries.

Haemorrhoid pills, tablets and drugs

What are the options?

A question often posed to us. We understand the desire for orally taken piles tablets that instantly cure your piles to exist. Haemorrhoids are considered an awkward subject to talk about / discuss with anyone, and so sufferers naturally gravitate towards more discreet treatment options. If no doctors had to be involved, if no one, apart from you had to know, and piles could just be quietly dealt with – wouldn’t that be wonderful?

It’s common for anyone to search out ‘miracle’ haemorrhoid cure tablets or homeopathic tablets for haemorrhoids. Everyone wants the medical sciences to step up and innovate in this area, but obviously the ways in which drugs and pills interact with the human body are complex and far-reaching. Piles removal tablets have been a ‘holy grail’ for piles sufferers for some years but alas, in our opinion, they do not exist.

Whilst we recognise the desire for medically approved, haemorrhoid tablets – the truth is that there’s no indication they will be available in the next few years.

But, whilst orally taken haemorrhoid cures do not exist in our opinion, there are options available that will at least help your symptoms. Evidence suggests that there is a potential benefit in using phlebotonics to relieve haemorrhoidal disease in addition to providing a benefit in alleviating post-haemorrhoidectomy symptoms. Phletotonics have been shown to reduce haemorrhoid symptoms, and there are few concerns regarding their overall safety from the evidence presented in clinical trials. Phlebotonics are a heterogeneous class of drugs consisting of plant extracts (i.e. flavonoids) and synthetic compounds (i.e. calcium dobesilate). Although their precise mechanism of action has not been fully established, they are known to improve venous tone, stabilize capillary permeability and increase lymphatic drainage. They do not however remove your haemorrhoids.

Apart from these, over the counter (OTC) painkillers, for instance paracetamol, will relieve some of the pain that you may get with haemorrhoids.

Also, if you have excessive bleeding from haemorrhoids, you should avoid non-steroidal anti-inflammatory drugs (NSAIDs), such as ibuprofen, as these can actually make the rectal bleeding worse.

Other methods of symptom relief

If the conservative measures outlined above are not helping to reduce the symptoms of haemorrhoids, it is recommended that the patient seek further help from a healthcare provider.

If you have only mild discomfort, there are a number of creams and ointments available that your doctor could advise you on.

If you have more severe symptoms or are seeking long lasting relief, then make a discreet call to one of our eXroid advisors and they can arrange an appointment with an eXroid consultant, usually within two weeks.

For more information about the eXroid® treatment for haemorrhoids click here.

To organise an appointment with an eXroid consultant, please call us on 0800 999 3777.