Dear Doctor, For about the last 1 week I have had daily on-off burning sensations only in my anus . The feelings are not painful but are irritating and uncomfortable. The feeling does not seem to be connected to: defecating (is not more or less painful when defecating or when feeling the need to defecate), bodily positioning (sitting or lying makes no difference to when the burning starts or stops) or time of day (can happen at any time and be of variable duration). I have inspected myself using a hand mirror but cannot see any obvious redness, lumps , leaking of fecal material, etc. When I defecate, it can be normal or contain a lot of gas and be broken into small bits. The color is normal and there is no associated bleeding . I get no obvious anal muscular contractions. Could this be hemorrhoids even though I cannot see any obvious sign? I know I should consult my doctor but I would like to get some idea myself first on what the cause of these burning sensations may be. Thank you.