Dr Fergal McNamara

But if over time they get stretched or inflamed or damaged, often due to straining,

then you get the symptoms.

Then you get the bleeding, the pain, the swelling and the prolapse.

That is the most common cause.

So people not eating enough fibre, not drinking enough water, constipation or hard stools, they're bearing down too much.

Over time, a cumulative effect, that's going to cause these venous cushions, these veins to be damaged, to be swollen, and then you're left with the problems.

It is, yeah, yeah.

I mean, yeah, sitting on a cold wall.

I remember being told that too.

But no, there's nothing really to... If anything, cold pressure or cold compress should help reduce swelling.

Absolutely.

So if you have a baby there in the female pelvis, that's putting downward pressure.

Arteries take the blood away from the heart, veins bring the blood back to the heart.

So the veins down there are working extra hard to try and bring the blood back.

But if there's something obstructing the flow, they're going to pool and swell.

Usually, we'd get women coming to us after the second.

They'd kind of often report that the haemorrhoids first came during the first pregnancy, maybe.

Then they settled down once they've had the baby.

But second pregnancy, third pregnancy, again, accumulative effect, and they're left with them chronically then.

Yeah, like most things, they do run in families.