IBS flare ups before af

[Frosty66612]

Do any of you have IBS which flares up a week before af starts? I get so bloated that I look 6 months pregnant, and I get gassy, cramps and an upset stomach.
I’m very careful with what I eat and I take buscopan when it gets too much. Just curious if anyone else suffers like this too?

What is af?!

Auntie flow. It’s what a lot of us call our periods on mumsnet

Why “auntie flow”? I don’t get it.

Flo as in short for Florence (name if fictional aunt), flow like a flow of blood.

It’s not rocket science to work out.
Thanks for your helpful reply though

Yes, I do, although not very bloated, but the day or 2 before and first few days of my period it's quite bad. No advice but it's not just you!

Yea I get terrible IBS symptoms every month before I get my period

It’s so horrible, it makes me feel so unwell like I’m suffering from a stomach bug :-(

Yes totally , all of the above but I have also started to get really painfully bloated around my ovulation time too. I actually feel best when I'm on my period or for a few days after .

Oh my god yes! I have IBS anyway, but it's just ridiculous around AF. I always dread my first poo on AF, dreadful shudders

@capricorn I also get symptoms around ovulation too. I only fee for about 10-14 days per month. My stomach is flat then too. At the moment it’s so bloated and rock hard and I feel crampy and nauseas

@cupcakes haha I know exactly what you mean

Yes. And it's gotten worse over the last few months, to the extent I was worried I had a hiatus hernia last month as I was so bloated it was pushing all my insides upwards and you could feel my actual stomach bulging under my ribs. DH noticed the enormous bulging too blurted "are you pregnant!"

I'm not pregnant. I have no hernia. I just get incredible IBS flare ups the week before af, and then towards the latter end of af it starts to ease off.

A few days after af I look like I've list half a stone all of a sudden now it's calmed down.

It seriously depresses me. I can't fit into my clothes properly, it's uncomfortable and painful, even causes shortness of breath and I can't sleep because of it.

I've got two weeks before I can look forward to it all over again

You're not on your own OP

@polish it’s miserable isn’t it?! I also look like I’ve lost a stone after af. I also sleep really badly before it which makes me feel even more crap

Not so much before as with. Bloated the day before and then the runs for the first three days, to the point I need to set my alarm 20 minutes earlier to account for the four extra times I need the loo before I leave the house.

It's like my period cramps and the stomach cramps combine into mega cramps

Thank goodness someone else has mentioned shortness of breath!!

I've had IBS for nearly 10 years and I've never heard anyone else mention it, I thought I was the only one

Any way, my IBS dies get worse. I look pregnant and can barely move and struggle breathing.

I don't have IBS but I have noticed my lactose intolerance is worse starting with PMS, I think meds just don't work as well.

OT but I'm not a fan of calling it AF either, it's an antiquated term used back when women were made to feel ashamed for the natural period of menstruation.

Yes it’s down to the rise in progesterone it slows down your digestion, so if you already have a sensitive tummy it’s much worse. Just try and be really careful of what you’re eating around that time. Gluten, lactose and fruit always make it worse for me. I really feel for you it’s awful. I find mebravine/Colfac better for me, maybe give that a try. x

@Chesntoots I get short of breath - I also get suuuuuper clumsy too!

DH keeps insisting I go to see GP because it's becoming so bad. It had me in tears last month. But the only professional advice I've been given by a doctor about my IBS is "eat a healthy diet" and "exercise"

Which I do. Always have. I'm active, eat a healthy varied diet. But it's never made a blind bit of difference to my IBS. In fact I find raw vegetables give me horrendous cramps. I loved raw celery and carrot sticks but had to cut them out as they left me in agony.

I'm just going to get given the same old advice again if I book an appointment with GP, so I don't see the point. Buscopan has never worked for me. Or charcoal tablets, or peppermint tea/tablets.

Yes. Awful trots. Gut wrenching pain. It was horrific when I was pregnant. Every single day, about five times a day for the whole of the second trimester. I felt so ill

@polish I got a referral to a gastroenterologist at the hospital and he was just as useless as my GP. He said all the same stuff about eating a healthy diet, avoiding all stress and taking peppermint. I do find the low fodmap diet helps a bit but it’s such a pain to do

Just a word of caution. Flare ups of IBS at the start of a period was for me the first symptom of bowel cancer. Keep an eye on it and go back to GP if it gets worse.

@weasels sorry to hear that. I had a colonoscopy and various other tests recently and everything was ok.

Frosty that's OK then. Always pays to check.