The VA rating for hemorrhoids runs 0, 10, or 20 percent under Diagnostic Code 7336, with the 20 percent level paying $356.66 a month and the 10 percent level paying $180.42 a month as of December 1, 2025.1Veterans Affairs. Current Veterans Disability Compensation Rates A 0 percent (noncompensable) rating pays nothing monthly but still opens the door to VA healthcare for the condition and other benefits. At the 10 and 20 percent levels, the payment is the same whether or not you have dependents.
What the Current Criteria Require
The VA rates internal and external hemorrhoids together under a single code in 38 CFR ยง 4.114.2eCFR. 38 CFR 4.114 – Schedule of Ratings, Digestive System In March 2024 the VA replaced older language like “mild or moderate” and “excessive redundant tissue” with specific, countable benchmarks.3Federal Register. Schedule for Rating Disabilities: The Digestive System What matters now is how often you thrombose, whether internal hemorrhoids prolapse, and whether bleeding has produced anemia.
The three levels break down like this:
- 20 percent: internal or external hemorrhoids with persistent bleeding and anemia, or continuously prolapsed internal hemorrhoids with three or more episodes of thrombosis per year.
- 10 percent: prolapsed internal hemorrhoids with two or fewer episodes of thrombosis per year, or external hemorrhoids with three or more episodes of thrombosis per year.
- 0 percent: service-connected but not meeting the 10 percent threshold, assigned under 38 CFR 4.31.
If you were rated before March 2024 and are pursuing an increase, make sure your current medical evidence speaks to these numbers rather than to the older subjective language. Counts of thrombosis episodes, documentation of prolapse, and lab confirmation of anemia are the concrete facts a rater is looking for.
Why a 0 Percent Rating Still Matters
A noncompensable rating isn’t a loss. Veterans with a 0 percent service-connected condition qualify for no-cost VA healthcare and prescriptions related to that condition, a travel allowance for scheduled VA appointments, 10-point preference in federal hiring, and commissary and exchange privileges.4Department of Veterans Affairs. VA Benefit Eligibility Matrix A 0 percent on the record also establishes service connection, which makes a future increase much easier if your symptoms worsen.
The C&P Exam Decides the Number
After you file, the VA will almost always schedule a Compensation and Pension exam. The examiner’s findings drive the rater’s decision, so what happens in that appointment usually determines your percentage.
Expect a records review, questions about your service history and symptom onset, and specific questions about frequency: how often you bleed, whether hemorrhoids prolapse, how many thrombosis episodes you’ve had in the past year, and what treatments you’ve tried. A physical exam of the anorectal area follows, and the findings go on a Disability Benefits Questionnaire matched against the DC 7336 criteria.
The most common mistake is downplaying symptoms on a day when nothing is flaring. The examiner can only document what you say and what they see. Bring a log covering the prior year with dates of bleeding episodes and thrombosis events. Concrete numbers beat memory under pressure, and they map directly onto the counts the criteria require.
Getting There Through a Secondary Claim
Many hemorrhoid claims succeed not on direct service connection but as a secondary condition. Under 38 CFR 3.310, a disability that is caused or aggravated by an already service-connected condition is itself service-connectable.5eCFR. 38 CFR 3.310 – Disabilities That Are Proximately Due To, or Aggravated by, Service-Connected Disease or Injury
Two pathways come up often. A veteran taking opioid pain medication for a service-connected orthopedic injury develops chronic constipation, which leads to hemorrhoids. Or a veteran with service-connected IBS or chronic diarrhea develops hemorrhoids from repeated strain. Both connections are medically well-established.
To win a secondary claim you need a nexus letter from a healthcare provider stating that your hemorrhoids are “at least as likely as not” caused or worsened by the primary condition, with medical reasoning behind the conclusion. A letter that walks through the mechanism (chronic opioid use produces constipation, which is a recognized cause of hemorrhoids) is far more persuasive than a checked box.
Aggravation is worth understanding on its own. If you had mild hemorrhoids before a service-connected condition made them worse, 38 CFR 3.310(b) still allows connection for the increase in severity. The VA sets a baseline and compensates only for worsening beyond it.5eCFR. 38 CFR 3.310 – Disabilities That Are Proximately Due To, or Aggravated by, Service-Connected Disease or Injury
A Temporary 100 Percent Rating After Surgery
If you have a hemorrhoidectomy or other surgical treatment for service-connected hemorrhoids, 38 CFR 4.30 authorizes a temporary total (100 percent) rating during recovery.6eCFR. 38 CFR 4.30 – Convalescent Ratings The rating applies when surgery requires at least one month of recovery or produces severe postoperative effects such as unhealed wounds or house confinement.
The 100 percent starts on the date of hospital admission or outpatient surgery and runs for one, two, or three months from the first day of the month after discharge. Extensions in one-to-three-month increments are available, and severe postoperative complications can support additional extensions up to six months.6eCFR. 38 CFR 4.30 – Convalescent Ratings When the convalescent period ends, the rating reverts to whatever DC 7336 percentage your ongoing symptoms support. If surgery changed the picture, that’s a natural moment to seek a re-evaluation.
Stacking Hemorrhoids With Other Digestive Ratings
The anti-pyramiding rule in 38 CFR 4.14 blocks two separate ratings for the same symptom under different codes.7eCFR. 38 CFR 4.14 – Avoidance of Pyramiding The digestive section adds a stricter rule for certain codes that cannot be combined with each other at all, but DC 7336 is not on that restricted list.8eCFR. 38 CFR 4.114 – Schedule of Ratings, Digestive System Hemorrhoids can be rated separately from conditions like IBS (DC 7319) or a hiatal hernia (DC 7346), provided the symptoms are distinct. If bleeding or pain from your hemorrhoids overlaps with symptoms already compensated under another code, the VA won’t pay twice. Document what each condition produces separately.
If the VA Denies the Claim
You have one year from the date on your decision letter to pursue a Higher-Level Review or Board Appeal, and a Supplemental Claim remains available after that window if you have new evidence.9Veterans Affairs. Choosing a Decision Review Option A Supplemental Claim is the right lane when you have new and relevant evidence, such as an updated nexus letter or additional treatment records. A Higher-Level Review asks a senior reviewer to look at the existing file for errors and does not accept new evidence, so it fits cases where the rater misapplied the criteria. A Board Appeal sends the case to a Veterans Law Judge and offers the option of a hearing, but it takes longer.
Hemorrhoid denials most often turn on a weak nexus letter or thin documentation of symptom frequency. The denial letter tells you which element the VA found lacking. Read it before choosing a lane, and put your effort there.