Sick to death of my awful bowels. Ruining my life.

[Rhetorical]

Morning all, I’m 52 and suffered from what the doctor has said is IBS since I was about 46, things went awry around the time my hormones probably started fluctuating. Here we are 6 years later and I’m still menstruating, still having horrible bowel issues.

When I was about 49/50 I visited the GP and she suggested HRT, even though I was still menstruating as I was having some other menopausal symptoms. I started on a low dose, one pump of gel and a progesterone tablet. After a week I felt so anxious, wired, jittery I stopped. I tried again and same thing happened. I also had diarrhoea at times, worse around ovulation.

I’ve tried on and off for two years to persevere but usually give up the oestrogen after a week, I feel rotten on it. I have kept taking the progesterone daily though as that seems to help me feel calm and has no negative effect on my stomach. As time has gone on the meno symptoms (fatigue, brain fog) have got worse and I’m think surely I need oestrogen by now.
I asked for low dose patches to hopefully deliver a steady dose. GP agreed and last week I started on a 25mg patch. First 3 days i slept well, no adverse effect, I really thought I’d cracked it. Fresh patch on yesterday morning and within an hour I could feel my lower stomach start bloating. It felt like I was being inflated with a pump! Went out to dinner with my husband last night and within 30 minutes I had the most awful pains and really bad diarrhoea, the pain is very low just above my pubic bone and feels like period pain but deeper. When I feel that I just have seconds to get to the loo and it’s full of yellow bile. It usually happens after a meal.

I ripped the patch off in frustration and went to sleep with a very sore lower stomach. Woken this morning after a poor night sleep feeling like I’ve been in a car crash, so much pain all over in my joints. My stomach feels like it’s been kicked and it’s gurgling and gassy.

I’m at a loss, I’m convinced my IBS is hormonal, I can’t cope with extra oestrogen but at the same time I need it for my other symptoms.

Any ideas please?

Look at the website link to Marianne Williams. I'm not 'promoting her' but I've a family member who consulted her and she is the real thing on the FodMap diet. Lots of advice on the site.

You really do need to try it and do it properly- just cutting out bread or carbs and spuds won't tell you anything.

It's initially an 8-week program and you should see results if that's what's going on.

Wholemeal should be avoided like the plague along with anything seeded, same with brassicas.

You have my sympathy but you are not helping yourself with your diet choices. Adopt a fodmap diet for 3 months and see if it helps.

I would try the Fodmap diet as suggested as some of your foods could be IBS triggers, however bile in stool is not normal. Things I would ask to tested for if they haven’t already:
Bile Malabsorption
Sibo
Stool calprocten levels

I'd go back to the GP and explain that you really are suffering and would appreciate more investigations. However I would also say that I've had IBS for all my adult life. I've found that some of the foods that I was told were 'good ' for me weren't. All those so called healthy snacks gave me painful guts and frequent trips to the loo. I can't eat rye, or sesame, or legumes. Can't eat Weetabix! Rubbish bread is OK! For some reason sourdough bread isn't good for me. Anything with bran, ditto. Keep a diary of what you eat and what happens and when.
However I think the bile thing needs proper investigation.

Your mornings sound very carb-y. If I were in your position I’d cut out the bread and lentils and replace with protein and fruit. It’s the only thing that works for my digestive system. I just can’t take much in the way of refined carbs any more

Please don’t cut out all gluten foods until after you’ve been tested for coeliac disease. You have to be consuming gluten for the test to be accurate. If you are coeliac and you stop all gluten and then try to go back to eating it for the testing, your reaction to it will worse than before. A blood test is okay but a colonoscopy is better.

Take a photo of the yellow poo. Show that to the doctor. Get photos for a few days in a row to show that it’s a daily occurrence and not a once off.

I asked Chat GPT to create me a low fodmap diet. First suggestion was overnight oats with chia seed. I have never 💩 so much in all my life. Potatoes with tuna. I tried Tuna in spring water 💩 baked potato 💩 cucumber 💩. Foods I can eat one day will go through me the next. I’m not convinced it’s fodmap. Maybe histamine due to fluctuating oestrogen? Gallbladder ejecting too much bile when food hits my stomach?

I’m embarrassed to be making all these GP appointments! I never used to visit the doctor, seems these days I’m going every six months or so for various things

I suddenly became lactose intolerant in my 40s, caused similar symptoms to yours within hours of eating dairy although it took me a year to make the connection. Funnily enough it was also around the same time I started HRT, maybe there's some connection? Anyway, I have to be completely dairy free now and if I have even a sip of milk/bite of ice cream, I really suffer.

I have finally gone to the Dr's about issues like yours I have had for years I have had one calacalprocten test which was raised so have to do a repeat one next week. I am hoping that it will come back raised again so I can have more investigations. I would like a Bile Malabsorption blood test as I have had my gallbladder out.

I did a really high protein diet for six weeks once (no carbs, no fat and minimal veg) in a bid the lose weight. The surprising side affect was that my ibs cleared up completely. It’s not an advisable diet long term but it worked for me.

colonoscopy and poo test asap

My sister did a full exclusion diet and found out it was citric acid that was affecting her. I would go full exclusion and try to wwork out what makes it bad. It can take 2 or 3 days for the issue to arise. So it might not be what your immediately eating that is making a react. Though the act of eating could be a trigger it could have been something you ate two days earlier.

The low fodmap diet does not work overnight. You have to follow the plan systematically. Start on the NHS website and follow links. There are extensive videos and lists of foods you can/ cannot eat.

But I agree with others that your problem may not be IBS at all. I would get a referral to a gastroenterologist if I were you.

I had diarrhoea and bad wind daily for years from peri-menopause onwards. I used to limit my trips to the city and take a loperamide tablet before leaving the house to ensure I didn’t get caught short when away from home. I definitely reacted badly to dairy products.

However, after starting mounjaro to lose the excess weight, my diarrhoea and wind stopped immediately and I can eat dairy with no ill effects at all. I feel amazing. 🤩

I’ve had IBS for years- I had it under control to a large extent through diet (especially no whole meal bread/ brown rice & pasta/ beans etc) and taking Biomel every day. However, I started oestrogen gel a month ago and the bloating has been horrendous! Yesterday was the first time I’ve had no pain and felt vaguely normal. So hopefully the side effects are reducing, but it does sound like you could do with more investigations.

It doesn't work overnight. It's supposed to be done over 8 weeks minimum.
ChatGPT is okay for some thing but there are far better guides online.

The Fodmap diet was introduced into the UK by Monarsh university in Australia.
Slowly, HCP in the UK have been trained in it.

There is one excellent gastroenterologist in London who is THE UK and international expert on this as well as overall gut and bowel issues. He brought the FODMAP to the UK .
If you want his details, PM me.

Please request a colonoscopy, I had similar issues to you for a long time and have now been diagnosed with diverticulitis. Self diagnosing, blaming all on the menopause and following specialist diets like fodmap are not helpful. Seek the medical diagnosis and then consider your options, the internet is of no help until you have that.

You may want to look up bile malabsorption syndrome - l was told for years l had IBS - it became a real problem even leaving the house to do anything - ruined holidays, days out - it was actually bms.

Since perimenopause started, I've suffered with digestive issues as well. I'm the opposite to the OP... I don't seem to poop enough. I suffer with slow transit constipation, sensitive to certain foods really randomly, bloating, pain, trapped wind, mucus when releasing wind . It hasn't gotten better with HRT. I didn't expect it to really. Been going on since 2014. Dr's no help. No blood in poop. I've been tested. So no further tests therefore.

It has gotten a little better with no periods though. They've naturally buggered off. I'm 50 yrs old. I used to get dreadful constipation leading up to ovulation. More fibre in diet did not help at all. I'd be in agony with brown bread for example.

Hormones 🤬🤬🤬

Have you had your gallbladder out.

I hope you don't mind me joining in this thread OP. I am going through very similar at the moment.
Only difference is that I DID have my gallbladder out about 7 years ago.
Didn't really have any issues for first 5-6 years but really struggling now and it's impacting day to day life.
It's 4 years since last period.
My bowel cancer screening test was clear.
I'm not overweight and don't drink alcohol but think I need to start again with my diet to see what might help.
Sorry you are struggling with it too.

I have the answer to this!
Having suffered from digestive issues for over 30 years and having tried ALL the things, finally I am free to eat whatever I want without issues!
I had reflux, food intolerances, ibs, leaky gut, possible sibo, histamine intolerance.

(Caveat: this only applies after you've been checked by a doctor and confirmed nothing structural is going on).

I first started a brain training programme which focused a lot on nervous system regulation. That helped calm symptoms a lot but I still had issues.

I finally found Dan Buglio on you tube and after binge watching his videos, the message clicked for me and I am finally free to stop stressing about food. It's so incredible after eating in such a restricted way for so long. Look at his Fast Start playlist and search for his success stories (you can look for specific issues, e.g. Dan Buglio success IBS).
It's truly inspiring what done people have been through and come out the other side!

You can be well again!

I had something a bit similar when I was on the progesterone only pill. Everything I ate went straight through me, it was v my draining. I came off of it and I was fine. I don’t know how helpful that is but I thought I’d share anyway.

@vincettenoir that's interesting because all my problems started after I had my daughter- which is when I went on the progesterone only pill. I was absolutely fine until then.

Agree with trying the Foodmap diet. DH had been diagnosed years ago with IBS, I tried to get him to go back to the GP many times as I thought something more was going on.

Turns outs he’s actually allergic to Sulphites. Once we had figured that out he is so much better.