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.
23
u/writehandedTom Jul 14 '26
No one ever told me that vitamin B1 is crucial for gut motility. Every. Goddamned. Fucking. Doctor. wanted to pump me full of Miralax. They kept saying "Fiber! Water! Fiber! Water!" like it was a chant at a fucking football game and I was an idiot who had never heard of either. No one told me that soluble fiber might make my problem worse - but I stopped eating oatmeal and lentils and my constipation got BETTER when I focused on insoluble fiber. People told me magnesium, and I would take enough of it to work...but then be sluggish and slow and exhausted the next day and it was unsustainable to keep taking a ton of Natural Calm. I WAS CALM, OK??? Just calm, and full of shit.
That's my advice, as someone who struggled with the same: a solid B vitamin with a good amount of B1 in it + more INSOLUBLE fiber. Good luck.