Constipation post ovulation

[Andie]

I’m 42 with regular 25/26 day cycles. I’ve never been super regular but I’m starting to notice a pattern that post ovulation I really struggle. I eat a high fibre, low carb diet (currently in 4th week of Sara Gottfried protocol and was great for first 2.5 weeks) I exercise regularly, take magnesium daily and am drinking about 3L of water a day. I’ve just started taking some phloe probiotics and some gut health powder (only a few days) but still no change. I feel bloated but even when I do go it’s not a full elimination. Anyone have any tips? I’m sure this is exacerbating my increase PMT symptoms!!

[EssBee]

I've had similar issues and found drinking more water (about 4 to 4.5 litres/day) helped. On bad days I would drink about 4 glasses in a row and that would get things moving again.

Also, I've just changed probiotics and have found it's taken about a week to adjust to those and have regular bowel movements again--more water helped there too, but I just had to wait it out and keep drinking more water.

[Andie]

Thank you! I do drink lots of herbal tea on top of water so I thought I might be enough but maybe I’ll increase it! Hard to keep drinking when I’m in a mask all day at work ! Hopefully the gut health stuff will kick in soon. Thanks for replying

[sjlee000]

Hi,

I had this too. I read this phase of the cycle with higher levels of progesterone can slow down bowel movements to extract maximum nutrients from the food you eat, in preparation for a pregnancy...

However, I noticed severe rabbit poop (sorry for being graphic!!) like constipation much more when I ate a low carb diet, high in insoluble fibre from lots of green veg & salad. As soon I added more soluble fibre from the higher carb sources like beans, oats, potatoes etc I was fine again & felt much better.

Hope that helps.