If you suffer from anal irritation and want advice and medication to relieve your symptoms.
Please read this leaflet and follow the instructions as necessary.

Keep the area clean by washing after every bowel action and night and morning. The nightly bath is particularly important if you itch at night. A bidet is ideal, but sitting in a bath or a bowl of water is a good substitute. A shower jet is also a useful way of cleaning. Make sure that all the small particles of motion are removed from the skin crevices around the anus.

Avoid rubbing with a bar of soap or a rough flannel. Soap remaining in the skin crevices can be very irritating. A few suds in the water and the finger tips, a soft cloth or cotton wool are all that are needed.

If you are away from home or good toilet facilities when you have to pass a motion, use moist tissue wipes, such as Wet Ones or Baby Wipes, to wipe yourself clean. These provide better, gentler cleaning than hard paper. If you have no wet tissues or cloth, you can moisten ordinary toilet tissue with saliva and obtain more thorough gentle cleansing than with dry, hard paper.

Keep the area dry - dab the skin gently with a towel or very soft paper. Do not rub. A hairdryer is the gentlest way of drying thoroughly.

Avoid excessive moisture - never leave a wet dressing on the anal skin. Wear cotton underwear, never nylon. Avoid any firm foundation garment that presses the buttocks together. The free circulation of air will prevent moisture accumulating. Avoid tights, use stockings or crotchless tights.

After drying gently, place a thin piece of cotton wool dusted with Zeasorb powder against the anus inside the pants. This piece should be about twice as large as a 50p piece and should be changed each time you wash.

Avoid perfumed talcum powder - this tends to collect into small, solid lumps in the crevices and, also, the perfume may cause allergy; even baby powder is not ideal. Zeasorb (aldioxa) or other drying powders are better.

Scratching at night when half asleep may damage the skin. If you find this a problem wear light (cotton) gloves. It is important not to scratch the sensitive area because this is very likely to make an existing problem even worse.

Avoid ointments and creams unless specifically prescribed for you. Any greasy preparation tends to keep the skin soggy, which is what we are trying to avoid.

Keep the bowels regular and smooth with plenty of fibre (roughage, bran) in the diet. Some dietary items cause irritation or loose motions in some people; avoid anything that does this to you. Do not sit and strain for more than a few seconds when passing a motion; take more roughage if necessary. Coarse bran has flakes which are passed unaltered and may make it difficult to cleanse around the anus. A smooth bulk forming aperient such as Fybogel, Isogel or Regulan may suit you better. These are available over the counter from your chemist.

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