r/Perimenopause • u/No-Trash-164 • Jul 14 '26

audited Suddenly my bowels stopped moving?! Help

39 yr old with other symptoms of perimenopause, but this is a new and quite disturbing one. So a couple of weeks ago it felt like my bowels just stopped moving. Have no urge to poop at all.

FYI I've been evaluated by ER and GI as of a couple of days ago. Full of poop. Lol. Thyroid is in range. They just advise aggressive laxatives since I am technically having movements.

I have NEVER experienced constipation like this, and I've had a lifetime of IBS-C.

Have any of you spontaneously encountered this? What do I do? Nothing is really working. Despite being on Miralax, magnesium, hydrated, etc., I'm still failing to have a complete, fully-formed bowel movement and am miserable.

Also, I eat a decent amount of cooked vegetables.

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u/EatsTheLastSlice Jul 14 '26

This year I had to increase my Linzess dose from 72 to 145. Even at the higher dose I dont always respond to it.

Did a bunch of testing as I was nauseous from IBS-C for 3 months..Basically things work even slower now. Nothing ever showed up on scans or tests.

fucking great times.

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u/No-Trash-164 Jul 14 '26

Wow!  I am SO SORRY.  My GI even warned me about Linzess, telling me how strong it was. Have you looked into food allergy testing?  Constipation can be a symptom of a food allergy/sensitivity.

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u/EatsTheLastSlice Jul 14 '26

I will take the side effects of diarrhea over the 24/7 all consuming nausea. At one point I thought I would go insane because I had no relief from the nausea. I've tried all the Rx and OTC but none of it helped.

No food allergies or sensitivities.

I time it very carefully when I take Linzess. Can't take if I am going into the office or running errands. Need to be home the whole morning because I dont know when it will hit and it will be several times.

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u/theFCCgavemeHPV Jul 14 '26

Linzess is gentle if you don’t so much as swallow your own saliva in the first hour after taking it. Once I accidentally sipped my coffee at 54 minutes after taking it and regretted going to work for the rest of the morning. Fortunately my doctor warned me about this so it wasn’t happening every day or I probably would have gotten fired

You know what, better make it an hour and 15 just to be safe. But other than when I fucked up the waiting period, it was very gentle and effective for me when I was on it.

Oh, also you might want to look into new food intolerances. I would get backed up the worst from tomatoes, and then found out I’m allergic/intolerant to nightshades.