Background: I've had IBS for 15yrs, with varying changing symptoms over the years.
This year I've become constipated but it took months to work out that that was what it is as I don't have the obvious traditional constipation symptoms of not going to the loo or hard stools. It took myself and my GP a while to come to the conclusion that it is constipation. I have a bowel movement every day, sometimes several times per day, and the more constipated I become the more frequently I go to the bathroom?! The movements are not hard themselves they're actually soft/fluffy (not sausage shaped at all but rather in pieces) but they are difficult to pass, I have to squeeze and push to get them moving and they are incomplete movements, small amounts each time but I have the urge to go several times per day with each stool getting smaller as the day goes on.
My GP prescribed fybogel which I've been using on/off for about 6 months now. It works to a varying degree, as in after a few days usage I will have more complete and full bowel movements and therefore less trips to the toilet per day and this will remain the case for a week or two and then the symptoms come back and I take the fybogel again for a few days and round and round we go.
I have tried upping my fibre intake through diet, fruit, veg, shredded wheat, chia seeds and flaxseeds in yogurts and on the cereal etc, I drink plenty of water. I don't do a great deal of high intensity exercise but I walk a lot and do yoga.
Has anyone else had this kind of constipation that I'm describing? If so what do they do about it? I'm getting really tired of it. Other symptoms of it when it's flaring up are nausea, some mild tummy pain, excess wind but those have always been the case with my IBS anyway.