Hi,

I am worried about my partner. He has been suffering from an itchy, swollen anus for around 2 years now. He says it began with an itch at the opening to his rectum and is now swollen (which goes through phases of swelling and going down). He says the swelling feels very hard at the moment, like a hard lump. There is also discharge.

Over time, this affected the surrounding outer area and caused cracked skin, bleeding and swelling which was spreading. This was causing him to not sleep at night as it felt worse at night. He has been going through a divorce these past 2 years and has been highly stressed, which only aggrevated the problems he has been experiencing. Whenever his stress levels increased, he noticed the symptoms became more severe.

He went to the doctor a few months ago and she perscribed him pile cream and tablets which made no difference.

He then went back to the doctors (a different doctor) last week who gave him sterroid cream for external use which has cleared up the cracked outer skin, and she asked him to return in 2 weeks. Whilst the cream has cleared up the cracked skin and bleeding on the exterior, he is still left with swelling at the opening of his rectum, which he thinks is possibly worse now. He has not applied the cream internally.

I am just wondering if you have any early ideas as to what this may be? I have looked this up and scared myself by viewing anal cancer on Google however I am not sure as he tells me the swollen lump increases and decreases and did not begin as a lump.

Any help would be much appreciated.

Many thanks,

Rachel