I saw others suggest a hemorrhoidectomy----my sister had hers 3 months ago (she's only 21!) and she's still recovering. Because there are so many nerve endings down there, and you use your gluteal muscles for __everything__ it takes a very long time to recover. She literally faints when she has to have a b.m. despite taking plenty of stool softeners, metamucil, extra fiber, etc. Just this last week, I kid you not, she was sweating blood from the pain. I am not even lying. She has another dr. appt. coming up and I'm sure others didn't have such a rough time, but from our experience unless you absolutely necessarily have to, do NOT do the surgery. She only did it because they were so bad and painful this was her only option.