Accepted Answer

If you are having significant pain and hemorrhoids that are prolapsing (popping out of the rectum), you have internal hemorrhoids. All your family doctor will do is treat it with the steroid suppositories to help shrink them down and recommend fiber therapy and stool softeners (which is appropriate for bleeding internal hemorrhoids).

A colorectal specialist or GI specialist can treat them with rubber band ligation or laser treatments to get rid of them completely. It can take a while to get into a GI specialist so you may want to see your family doctor initially just so you can have relief.

If the hemorroid is an external hemorrhoid (actually on the outside), it is treated differently. If a blood clot has formed in an external hemorrhoid, these can be removed by making a small incision in the office and removing it. Some family doctors will do it and some will refer for treatment.

Here is some more information for you about hemorrhoids if you would like to read:

http://www.uptodate.com/patients/index.html (search under hemorrhoids)

Feel free to ask any follow up questions,

Dr Abby

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Expert:	Dr. Abby
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Accepts:
Answered:	10/27/2009

Board Certified MD

Family Physician, practicing medicine for over 9 years, United States