My pruitis ani started this year in January. I had been a bit itchy for a while but one night I had diahorrea and that triggered it off really badly.
There were two kinds of itches, One was a maddening prickly itch inside the rectum that was so bad that when I went to an away-day at work I could not concentrate on a word that was being spoken, I was just gritting my teeth and clutching a chair. Then there was the other kind of itch which was almost pleasurable to scratch. I would find the itch would jump around, inthat if I stopped it in my rectum it would move up higher inbetween my buttocks or around my vulva. At one point I was thinking that if I had to have these itches for the rest of my life there was no point in living.
Anyway the first two months I went to the chemist and bought all the creams for rectal itching: lanacane, the haemorroid creams and suppositories, even anti fungal creams as I had had a groin fungal infection about a year before and thought maybe it might have come back in my anus. I also tried a cortizone cream I got over the counter. I did not go to the doctor straight away as my itch always seemed to be getting better. The haemorroid suppositories seemed to work the best. I looked on the internet and ordered an anti itch lotion from America. I was willing to try anything and wasting alot of money. My itch ranged from unbearable to tolerable. I had to wear santary towels for the suppositories and sit on the side of my chair at work. I bought cotton knickers, showered my bum only with water and no detergents, tried blow drying it, putting a pad between my cheeks at night. Oh yes and I tried the thread worm tablets about twice.
Then in March I went to the doctor, he examined me for haemorroids, anul fissures, and I had a stool test for threadworms (just for incase I had them and I reinfected). I had none of these things. He told me that the chemist creams I had been using contained steroids and used too long could make the itch worse as they thin the skin. He advised stopping them and just using Sudocrem which is used for babies bottoms. I was also asked about my bowel movements, whether I was regular. At the time I thought I was so I said yes.
Anyway the sudocrem did not help, so my next stop was the health shops, I tried teatree cream, aloe vera, calendula cream, starflower cream, homeopathic candida pills, probiotics. these things seemed to help a bit, and as you have probably gathered \"curing my itch\" consumed most of my waking hours. Oh yes I also bought herbal calming pills in case it was stress related.
Then around April this year the first breakthrough happened. I read in the \"itchy bum\" blog, I am not sure which one that it can be a food allergy. So I bought anti-allergy pills at the chemist. They were one-a- day ones. I finally had some time when I did not itch at all, however I found the ones that made you a bit drowsy worked the best and taking them all the time made me tired. I tried cutting out certain foods but it did not seem to make any difference. I continued to use tea tree creams and calendula cream which helped a bit.
Then I discovered another thing that really helped. Instead of scratching the itch; when you have a shower if you squat and hold the shower right over your rectum so the water gets in a bit and make it as hot as you can stand, it kind of brings up the itch and scratches it for you in a safe way.
I then switched to piriton allergy pills because you need to take one every four hours as opposed to one a day, so I could just take one when I needed it like at night to enable sleep and by the morning I would not be drowsy as it would have worn off.
Anyway the combination of piriton and the shower treatment helped alot, and gave me some respite but I still had my itch and I did not want to take piriton and be rushing off the the shower for the rest of my life.
The shower treatment made me think of colonic irrigation. My itch was much worse after a bowel movement and it got to the point that it was easier for me to be constipated. I decided maybe there was something in my bowel I was allergic to.
I looked up colonic irrigation on the internet. There was a natural method which involved fasting for 5 days - I knew at the moment I would not have the willpower to do that and then there was the method at the clinic. It did say that colonic irrigation could give you pruitis ani if the instruments were not sterilised property. It was now June and after having Pruitis for 5 months I did not want to take any risks.
Anyway I had bought a few things in the past from a website called bodykind. They happened at this time to send me an e-mail about a special offer for Lepicol. This is something for healthy bowels with Psyllium Husks and Probiotic cultures, basically a natural colon cleanser. As it was a bargain and I cannot resist a bargain I decided to try it, it couldn't do me any harm after all. It turned out to be the answer to my prayers and believe me I had been praying. I started Lepicol on 20th June this year and I continued with the occasional piriton pill. The first week nothing much changed but after a month my itch changed from having unbearable itch or tolerable itch to no itch at all most of the time or tolerable itch. Whereas before the more bowel movements I had the more I itched now I would itch a little before a bowel movement and then a little after and then everything was fine. In other words the more I went the less I itched. I had obviously been constipated and not realised it, probably as I had given up nicotine a year ago which slows you down.
It is now August and I have no itch at all and I no longer need the piritons. I have bought another pot from the health shop called Regucol by Holland and Barrett which is just the same stuff as the Lepicol. I plan to keep taking it for a while just to be sure it does not come back.
This is a long email but if you have pruitis ani you will not be bored by it and it is hard to think of much else. I hope I have helped someone.