Sorry, this may be long but I am hoping that someone may be able to help me as my GP is of no help at all (neither is my gynaecologist).
I have had 'IBS' since my mid 20's and period problems since they began at the age of 12. I am now 52.
Over the years I have had many, many gynae and gastro tests. All come back as normal and gut issues as 'just' IBS.
However, despite trying everything (and I mean, everything) to ease the gut issues they continue. I have kept a symptoms and food diary for many years and can not see any connection between my digestive woes and the food I eat despite being very careful with my diet. I follow a low fodmap diet (under an NHS dietician) and avoid my known trigger foods and only drinking water. I Exercise, use hypnotherapy and live as 'clean' as I possibly can. I have never found a real definite cause or trigger.
However, I do think that hormones play a huge part, they very much exacerbate my issues. I first developed IBS at the age of 25 and struggled with issues until I became pregnant at 32 when I was able to go a full year completely symptom free and eat/drink anything I liked. I could even drink milk daily which would normally give me awful diarrhoea. Weirdly, during my second pregnancy I felt awful throughout with daily gut issues. I also find that outside of pregnancy my cycle very much determines my symptoms. I would feel awful for a week before my period and during and then be almost symptom free for a few days after then as soon as ovulation came I would become constipated and feel bad again (that's when I get awful nausea) and would have diarrhoea again the week before and during my period.
Since perimenopause has struck (6 years ago) my digestive symptoms have gone crazy. Nausea, bloating, gas, acid indigestion (all mid cycle and daily for about 7-10 days). Bloating, pain, gas, diarrhoea every day, excessive gurgling and discomfort around 7 days before my period and during. Day 2-3 of my period is simply awful and will put me in bed (alongside anxiety and depression that is so overwhelming).
Yet around day 7 or 8 of my cycle I will experience zero symptoms. I can literally go from feeling as though I have a stomach bug to feeling on top of the world. The whole of my digestive system is as calm as can be and I feel great, I can eat without any discomfort of feelings of needing the toilet urgently etc. No gurgling or feeling as though my guts hate me, yet this only lasts for max 3 days.
But I don't know exactly why this is. It must be hormonal and I would really love to know what is happening during these times so I can try to replicate those 3 good days throughout the rest of the month to avoid such misery but I can not find anyone to help me. My GP doesn't know, my gastroenterologist has run all the gastro tests and everything is normal and my gynaecologist says he is not a hormone specialist so doesn't know either.
I have tried HRT but it made me worse and as my mum has hormone sensitive breast cancer I am loathe to mess around with my hormones even more.
I know that peri hormones are notoriously difficult to monitor but surely if every month I am experiencing a lull in my symptoms during these particular days then there must be a drop or rise in a hormone which could greatly benefit me if I could somehow copy this with medication or some form of personalised HRT? How can I find this out? Who would take me seriously?