Sitz Bath Salt -Yes or No?

There are two schools of thought concerning how to add salt to your sitz bath. If you’re using the bath as a treatment for hemorrhoids, generally it is not recommended because there really doesn’t appear to be much therapeutic benefit for adding sitz bath salt for hemorrhoid treatment.

If your sitz bath is for other reasons such as relieving discomfort froma perineal tear or to heal from an episiotomy most doctors do seem to suggest the addition of salt to your sitz bath to help the healing process. Generally Epsom salts should suffice, as we don’t need the expensive salts like those from the Dead Sea that you would use for a sea salt bath.

Regular sea salt has also been suggested as a sitz bath salt to aid healing since it’s more pure. Mineral baths and other bath salts can also be added to your regular soak in the tub for your whole body and still have an affect on easing your pain just as much as your sitz bath, even though a small basin of warm water can be more convenient than filling a tub each time.

Sitz Bath Salt Alternates

For postpartum treatments there are actually entire kits available for use in your sitz bath if you want to go beyond just using epsom salts. These kits contain herbs for your bath, sprays, balms, and teas. An example of such a kit is here: Earth Mama Angel Baby Postpartum Recovery Kit.

As far as hemorrhoids and the use of salts to treat them, I have read some opinions that believe salt in the sitz bath could actually make them worse, but most seem to think they’re mildy beneficial, harmless or ineffective. Of course for hemorrhoid treatment I , as I’ve done in past posts, recommend a more holistic approach to cure them permanently such as the H Miracle system rather than using something that is temporay such as sitz bath salt.