Had an anal fissure for over a month, with no apparent cause, other than typical bowel movements. It was very painful and led to a great deal of bleeding. I saw that one suggestion was to change the position of the back while having a bowel movement. This only helped slightly; HOWEVER, during this process of changing positions during a BM, I realized that the toilet I have been using was too low to the ground for me, causing my knees to be very bent and legs upright during a BM. It must have been putting strain on the anus. By extending my legs out in front of me during BMs, the pain and bleeding stopped within one day. Leg positioning seems to have been the simple cause of these anal fissures. It was such a simple solution and I wanted to share this with people with the hope of it helping them cure a very painful and annoying condition.
Replied By Kal (London, England) on 06/12/2010
I just wanted to say to you a big thank you. I've been in horrendous pain for 4 weeks now and I tried the above change of position. For the first time in 4 weeks I didn't have any pain after a BM. Thank you so much for your advice. I'm now off to buy some vitamin B6 to see if that helps.Replied By Randy (Jc, Nj) on 11/23/2010
Not sure about this one. If it works for you, that's great. However, the natural position for deficating is squatting. I would have thought the lower toilet seat would have been a good thing. Keeping your legs straight sounds very counterintuitive to me, but again, if it works, it works!Replied By Jini (Vancouver, Bc, Canada) on 05/18/2011
If you go watch my "Constipation Pooping Positions" video on YouTube, you will see why extending the legs helps in situations where you need to relieve the downward pressure on the rectal canal or anus. Other times this is also helpful is with anal stenosis or stricture - go see the vid, I explain it all there.Replied By Mara (Canada) on 02/15/2026
Honestly, this helped me a lot too. Can't remember if I tried it on my own or learned from you - was about 4 years ago...but it helped so much, from making a BM borderline impossible, to still-very-painful-but-possible (Oh gosh, do I remember...And I'm sure it helped with *decreasing damage* done each time, which of course makes healing possible and faster..gradually BMs in this position were less and less painful... Anyway, going through this again unfortunately which is why I'm back on this page. Had to comment on this because it REALLY helped.