Symptoms, Their Causes & Cures Anal Itching: "Slash your coffee drinking. Coffee beans contain oils that you can't digest. The oils irritate the skin surrounding the anus when they are excreted from the body. Simply limiting yourself to one or two six-ounce cups of coffee daily may be enough to prevent or relieve anal itching, says Scott Goldstein, M.D., a colon and rectal surgeon at Thomas Jefferson University Hospital in Philadelphia."