Anal skin tag removal recovery

[Mommabear1219]

Hi All! Just had two tags removed about 10 days ago and I have some questions about everyone else's experiences with recovery. I only had 1 small tag and 1 slightly bigger tag (still both were fairly small) but it was getting to my self confidence and my sex life with my husband so I decided to have them removed. The procedure itself was fine, they just numbed the area and removed them and I didn't feel a thing. About 2 hours later i guess the numbing med wore off and I could feel stinging sensations but for the most part it wasn't terrible excruciating pain. Around that 2 hour mark when I changed out the gauze, I did feel that there was a pretty good sized lump back there but I figured it was just swelling (as the doctor said that would happen) so I continued with icing it and taking warm baths a couple of times a day along with ibuprofen. I'm on day 10 and I haven't seen that lump change in size at all and it's really getting me down. It looks way worse than what I actually had removed. I'm seeing the surgeon again for a follow up exam in about 5 more days but I'm so anxious and so worried that this ugly lump is never going to go away or take months to go away. Someone please tell me this is normal and nothing to worry about 😭

Did this ever get better for you? Are you glad you did the procedure? Thinking of having it done myself, but am very scared.

Highly recommend!! I went back to the surgeon and he did say that it was healing normally, and on target. Sure enough, about 4 weeks after the surgery, I was good as new, no sign of any skin tag removal or that one was ever there in the first place. I wish I would have done it sooner. Make sure you do your research on your surgeon and ask a lot of questions about recovery. I've seen many stories of people essentially messing up their own results because they did not follow the recovery procedures.

Thank you so much for responding! Glad to hear you're as good as new - that's so reassuring. How many days did it take for your "lump" to go away, and how many days were you off work/unable to do much in daily life? Last question - where did you get the procedure done? I'm in Canada and options are limited - they don't really let us "surgeon search" and there are almost no clinics that offer this privately, unfortunately. Appreciate you responding and thrilled you had a great result.

So glad I saw this thread. I wasn't aware it was so common, I've had what I assume is a tag for years. I might just go and see someone about it x

It is worth doing research on the surgery first - it's complicated and recovery can be dicey. Just be very informed so you know what you're getting into.

@Mommabear1219 hello, do you mind sharing how you recovered and how long it took you to get back to normal? i am 3 weeks post removal of 2 tags - one large one small. i look SO MUCH worse than i did prior to surgery. i look like i have numerous tags in the place where there were once 2 relatively small (in comparison). this new lump / bump is about an inch long. my confidence has plummeted, i'm recently single and cannot imagine dating again, i'm 32 years old. i feel so, so depressed and hopeless that i'm going to look like a freak forever. i feel fine and am no longer experiencing pain but i dont know how i'm going to live with this. please tell me it gets better and i didn't just ruin my life over this procedure. i can't stop crying. and i just want to know that i am healing and that i will look normal again. i am scheduling a follow up with another doctor (thursday) who is female as my first has not been comforting at all. i havent felt this depressed in aw hile.

@friendloud8772 I am sorry to hear you are going through this. I've seen posts by others who have taken a long time to fully heal/have the swelling go down. Logically, if the doctor cut off your tags, they are gone. The area may be swollen, but it should calm down. Please keep us posted on what your doctor says. Did your doctor use a local anesthetic or GA? From what I've read, a local can cause swelling for longer. I feel sorry for young women (I'm one, but a bit older than you) -- our behinds never used to be such a focal point for our male partners, but with online p*orn, it seems they all want a good look at our backsides, making us so self-conscious about these tags. I'm so sorry for both of us - hope you will heal up well!

I will also add - if the tables were turned and a man we were dating had these things, we wouldn’t care. Hate that women have such a high mountain to climb to feel good and attractive. :(

I just hope to god i look normal again. I feel so so so beyond depressed right now. I cannot look like this forever ….. i simply can’t. I’ll never date again if this doesn’t improve. I can’t live looking like this i feel and look like a total freak. All i want is to date and find my person there’s no way i can do that looking like this. I wouldn’t have touched it if i knew. I’m just so so upset. Thank you so much for listening and responding

I had local no stitches 2 tags one very small the other not as much. I now look like i have 4 tags.

It’s likely just swelling. If not, they can do the surgery again. It works best with laser - I know there’s a clinic in Calgary, Canada, that does it and people have had good results there.

Maybe try putting ice on the area and taking some anti-inflammatory tablets. Try to not stress - as I said before, we women wouldn’t care if a man had this issue, and I also think maybe men care less than we think. Some of them will even think it’s normal. So again, don’t worry - if you’re not in pain and you have your health otherwise, that’s the main thing. A man who loves you won’t care about a bit of skin in an area he doesn’t need to be poking at anyway.