What great practical advice! Is a gay man who used to hate getting anally penetrated, my biggest pro tip is to practice with toys, starting smaller and working up, to learn how to get the inner sphincter dilated without the fiery pain that can be associated with that.

Once you understand how to do it for yourself, you can help a partner prepare you properly.

Anyway, that worked for me when I was trying to get over my fear of anal sex, which came from doing it really really wrong the first couple times.