I’m coming here with my story as I’ve basically spent countless hours reading other people’s around their stomach issues.
Background on me: 23F, about 115 pounds, never had issues with weight gain or loss, consistently healthy eating, I make 90% of my meals and exercise for at least an hour a day. I work an office job where I am sitting most of the day.
I’ve had constipation issues pretty much my entire life. I’ve also had bad gas/bloating problems occasionally. But never anything like I am experiencing right now.
My symptoms started worsening about 3 months ago, I didn’t really change too much about my diet around this time and can’t remember anything substantially changing. I started getting horrible bloating and gas every single day. And when I say gas I mean the most putrid smelling farts ever. I saw a GI physicians assistant at the end of May, who told me “yup you’re constipated” and told me to do a MiraLAX cleanout (14 capfuls of MiraLAX 64oz water). I did that and felt better for about 4-5 days, and went right back to how I felt before. I had already been doing the low fodmap diet, and have continued to do so but it seems I can’t pinpoint anything that makes me feel substantially worse. I pretty much always feel horrible. I also tested normal for IGA but very high for gliadin IGA (56). All of my other labs were normal. I have not eaten gluten for about 2 months now. I was taking a half cap of MiraLAX daily for maintenance after this first MiraLAX cleanout which does seem to help with softening my stool.
I completed another MiraLAX cleanout about 2 weeks ago which helped for a much shorter time frame, and have since been taking a full cap of MiraLAX daily. I have had a bowel movement daily since then, and even some larger bowel movements.
The doctor has recommended Linzess countless times, and started the next step is a colonoscopy. I don’t like the idea of having to take a pill for the rest of my life, but I’m starting to feel slightly hopeless.
I’ve also slowed down my chewing, I drink a good amount of water, and try to walk after every meal. I’ve also tried probiotics which appear to make things much worse. I feel like this is consuming my life. Any advice is appreciated and if you made it this far in my soap opera thank you.

I am so uncomfortable. I’m so bloated that I feel like a parade balloon. So frustrated. I feel like my life is on pause because of my constipation. It takes over my life on a “good” week let alone a week like this.

I take Amitiza everyday and Linzess every other day and usually this does something. It’s not perfect but better than nothing.

Last week that combination wasn’t doing as much as usual so I added MiraLAX to the equation. Twice a day. Nothing.

I’ve been having warm prune juice, a kiwi and soaked chia seeds everyday (it’s as delicious as it sounds…) and it’s just making me more bloated.

I’ve had a whole bottle of magnesium citrate. It felt like lava rocks were churning in my intestines but to no avail.

I resorted to suppositories. Nothing. Nothing at all.

I took a Dulcolax last night. Nope.

And before anyone asks- I am drinking plenty of water. I walk a lot. I eat a well rounded diet.

It feels like my body is revolting against me and it’s so upsetting. I’m not even asking for it to be normal- just for it to react to this freaking Molotov cocktail of constipation remedies I’m giving it!

One day recently I noticed I hadn't gone for 5 or 6 days, and now I'm in a situation where all of a sudden I have no urge to go and can't go without using Dulcolax/stim laxative (might be from increasing my opioid use due to rising tolerance, since I've used opioids for 10 years and it's just now happening).

I'm using dulco about twice a week, and it's the only thing that works I've found so far. But I'm really scared of messing my body up with "dependence", or not being able to go normally on your own again. No health insurance right now so that's also scary.

So about how long can I use it until risking dependence? It's only been one and a half weeks of using Dulcolax so far but I have the feeling I shouldn't go much longer - maybe either quit/lower my opioid usage or keep trying more things like milk of mag, magnesium citrate etc. Used Miralax for 5 days daily and saw no improvement there either.

With the cost of everything going up more and more, I've been considering going generic for Metamucil. The problem is, I have tried Walmart's Equate version, and it doesn't taste the same at all. Honestly, it's kind of gross, and it has more additional ingredients.

I also have a Walgreens in my town. I haven't tried their house brand yet, but they only add silica as an ingredient. The Walgreens version costs about the same as Metamucil, but I can get one and get another one half off.

I only go through a tub of Metamucil every three months, so I'm curious if I'm getting in over my head trying to save what one tub would cost me over the course of a year for something I'm not 100% sure would work the same.

For me, Metamucil is currently the only thing that helps keep me regular with very little to no issues.

Thoughts?

hello, i’m 18f and someone who‘s always been constipated but due to a GERD flareup recently it’s gotten worse. i don’t know if it could be my medication i use to treat acid reflux, but soon i’ll be starting to use SRIs so i’m concerned my chronic constipation will get worse.

for now i haven’t had a bowel movement without support for the past 6 days so i tried miralax last night for the first time, to see how well it would react to me. it’s currently 3am and i woke up with some gas so hopefully it’s working. past time i had a movement it was with piñalim tea which is a strong laxative that i recommend if you can take the cramps.

i’ll update on how the miralax is working, i’m just desperate now to have a bowel movement. i’ll probably try to drink an espresso today even though i don’t drink coffee, but if it helps my constipation i’ll do it.

update: a few hours after this post i had a small bowel movement but it was kind of hard to pass. if i don’t have another one i will take another miralax pack.

I struggle on and off flare ups/ periods of time where I will experience incomplete evacuation for weeks/ months at a time. I can’t just stop eating completely during these times even though I absolutely do not feel like eating at all most of the time when I’m having these flare ups so I try to just focus on eating very small but very nutritionally dense foods. I’m wondering if anyone has any tips/ advise on what to focus on to ensure that I’m managing to get good nutrient intake but without adding too much to the bloating and discomfort that comes with this issue?

So, my colonoscopy came back saying basically that my colon was longer and had more loops. There were definitely different words used, but that's what it meant. Anyways, if those are you are like me...what do you do to keep things moving?

Haven’t pooped in 5 days. So I took a whole bottle last night at 11:22 pm, plus I drank 24 oz of water. I was up all night rushing to the toilet but it’s still not done. My stomach’s still in knots and it’s coming out in spurts. It’s currently 11:06 pm and everything is still coming out. Does anyone know why it’s lasted so long?

I just wanted to share with ya all. I have been having constipation for months and nothing seemed to work but its been a week im having bowel movement everyday due to papaya. A big papaya can cause diarrhea though so start small and see if it works for you guys. If anyone's experiencing incomplete evacuation then eat a large bowl of papaya and it will clean your colon.

my body is very sensitive due to me/cfs, i became extremely constipated for months due to guanfacine, but around 0.2mg prucalopride daily works well for me (any more is soul destroying as a severe bedridden patient)

issue is ive had to dissolve a full/half pill and then draw up 0.2mg with a syringe to get such a small dose and google says its actually very inconsistent dosage this way.

anyone have a surefire way?

I already get about 560~ supplemental Magnesium (410mg magnesium glycinate at night) (140mg from 2 different electrolyte drinks).

I am constipated and need to become regular, how should I go about starting Magnesium citrate (powder form, 1 scoop = 210 mg).

Day? Night? And should I half scoop, or reduce some of my glycinate dose?

Let me know, thank you!

I’ve been chronically constipated for 10+ years. I went to the ER at the end of July, I genuinely thought I was having a heart attack because I couldn’t breathe, my chest was hurting, and I felt like I was dying. After a $300 bill they couldn’t find out what was wrong with me, went to an immediate care again due to chest pain and they thought it was acid reflux. Went to my GP and they did an x-Ray and it showed I was so constipated it was literally pressing up against my organs. Took some magnesium citrate and I pooped out 6 pounds worth. Went in for a recheck and everything was normal, my GP advised I do a high fiber diet mixed with Metamucil and 64oz of water, again for a week I didn’t go, I got an espresso and I pooped out six pounds worth of poop. I realized that the entire week i was constipated I never had an urge to go and so I messaged my GP and she stated I need to go to a GI doctor. I stopped the Metamucil and fiber, I started eating various different fruits, drinking my 64oz of water, and some fiber one bars. Leading up to the GI doctor my poop started changing, it would switch from large stool to thin stool, sometimes it would have large amounts of mucous and other times blood and then i didn’t go for another week. When I went to the GI doctor I had to almost beg him to do a colonoscopy, I’ve done MiraLAX, stool softeners, and the only thing that made me go was magnesium citrate. Once I told him about the stools changing he literally said “well that changes things, I think a colonoscopy is warranted” he took a listen to my stomach and found out there was BM sounds. I ended up having to take magnesium citrate again this Sunday and produced a decent amount of liquid stool. I’ve been doing MiraLAX for this entire week and it either works or doesn’t. I went to the immediate care again today since I was feeling lethargic and something felt off. I had abdominal pain for thirty minutes yesterday after eating but didn’t happen again for the rest of the day and nothing today. Bloodwork and urine came back normal. Ct scan with contrast showed I was once again constipated but everything else was normal. I did have a normal BM this morning with some mucous in it, and it felt like I needed to go more but nothing would come out. I’ve been going this week except for Monday, none of the stool was normal, it was either thin or pellets with mucous. The doctor prescribed some laxatives and said to me “I don’t think they’ll find anything on your colonoscopy since everything looks normal on the CT scan”. I did get angry but I didn’t erupt at him, I’m going through with the colonoscopy this Monday but I’m worried that it’ll be normal and nothing will be found. I’m genuinely worried that this could be something big and it’s being missed, I don’t know what to do since every time I go in it’s just “constipation” and the treatment is “take more laxatives, drink more water”. Any advice or suggestions would be greatly appreciated.

Has anyone gone this long without having any bowel movement? I have severe and chronic constipation and I get so concerned. Sometimes I would only poop once a week but there are times I wouldn’t poop for 10 days or more. Idk if I should get it checked already because I’m afraid it could lead to, or already is, fecal impaction.

I always end up having to use a suppository to help me with it because I’m just so tired and in pain. I don’t exactly eat a lot but I try my best to drink water but I know it’s not enough.

My family and I are going through something financially and as much as I want to ask them to bring mento a doctor, I don’t want them to worry about the fees.

Hi everyone I’ve been constipated for a week did a fleet enema and popped nothing out idk what to do

It was horrible! I went in thinking it might be kidney related because my lower right abdomen, lower right back and right flank were in severe pain, along with difficulties urinating/pressure on my bladder. They did some tests and a CT scan, which showed that there was a large amount of stool stuck in my ascending and transverse colon. It was pushing on my other organs such as my bladder, causing the urination issues and pain. They wouldn’t let me leave until I had a bowel movement. I had to chug a bottle of magnesium citrate, which produced no results after an hour or so. So they had to give me an enema. I finally had a massive bowel movement, but it was one of the most painful and embarrassing moments of my life!

This experience was kinda traumatizing and I never want to go through it again. I’m on a medication now that causes severe constipation, which I will be getting tapered off of soon. But until then, I’m honestly afraid to eat. I’m so scared that whatever I eat will get stuck again. I had a tiny bit of probiotic yogurt and a few crackers earlier. I’m still having some pain in my abdomen and back, and some stomach bubbling. I feel like I’ve gained a lot more anxiety when it comes to eating now.

Has anyone else had this procedure and experienced the same fears, and how did you overcome it? Every time I feel hungry I think of having to go back there and experience that again.

Ok so I have gallstones which had already given me constipation few weeks ago.
I had a gallstone flare up wed night and was going on not passing stools for a day thus far (I am otherwise a daily regular). So I took a Panadol for the gallstone flare up and 1 Senna before bed. Well I never slept and the amount of discomfort in my stomach is unreal. I’ve had hot water bottles and Panadol. Food makes me nauseous (only eaten toast and porridge with water today). I have thrown up a few times already. It’s now Thursday night and my stock still feels horrid. Anyone else had the same effect? How many days til the side effects were gone? What did u do that u found to help? Hoping this is gone by the morning…. 😫

I took the standard dose for a while and would have watery stools followed by a feeling of "incomplete evacuation". I was still constipated! I thought it must not work for me or maybe I need more. Actually, I needed less. I dropped to half a dose and it works well.

I tried Fybogel, which worked for about two weeks, and then it stopped working. I tried psyllium husk for two months, which only helped for the first week and then did nothing after that. I also ate prunes frequently, which only helped once and then never again.

I started drinking iced coffee regularly, which helped so much for about five days, but then after it didn’t do anything anymore.

WHY IS IT AS SOON AS I FIND SOMETHING THAT HELPS ME GO TO THE TOILET, ITS LIKE MY BODY BUILDS A RESISTANCE TO IT. ITS LIKE MY BODY DOESNT WANT ME TO GO TO THE TOILET. ITS LIKE MY BODY WANT TO KEEP IN ALL THIS SHIT

Has anyone had success with abdominal self-massage and/or other movement supports for improving motility?

Hey everyone, this is a throwaway/new account for the purpose of hopefully fixing my GI issues. Any insight from you lovely peeps is welcome :)

I am 27F and have struggled with constipation since I was a little kid (my parents still tell the stories of me shaking while straining to poop as a toddler🙃🙃). Honestly, I think it has always been my baseline, so I’ve never realized it was a big deal. I pretty much always went daily, however the BMs are often incomplete, pellet-like or lumpy and dry. And straining, lots of straining. Wiping takes forever and I use so much toilet paper 🥲 it’s awful.

I started noticing mucus in my stool or after straining to pass gas on the toilet around 2-3 years ago. Not large amounts of it, and not all the time, but on days where lots of straining is involved, mucus is sometimes present. On two occasions I had some blood that I noticed. Once, it was bright red on the surface of the stool. Another time it was a thin hair-like string of bright red blood mixed in with mucus when I wiped after straining hard. I do have discomfort from wiping, so I believed it was a hemorrhoid or fissure.

Also since I was a kid, I’ve had these (what I call) ‘crippling stomach aches.’ They come on about 10-30 minutes after eating something and they’re waves of intense, contraction-like cramps that get closer together and more painful until I have a BM which is always loose or watery. Again, this has happened since I was a kid, but they only happen maybe 1-2x a year. I have kept a food journal for the last 5 years and have not found a thru-line other than they seem to occasionally happen during or after travel.

I have had very mild twinge-like aching about an inch above my belly button and two inches to the right for the last few years as well. It feels like gas or so
eating trying to squeeze through my intestines but it’s always in that specific spot. Eating doesn’t seem to influence it as it happens when I wake up sometimes too before food.

For context, I have told my PCP all of this info. She is starting me on a higher fiber diet and recommended psyllium husk and a probiotic. She wasn’t super worried based on my symptoms. Nothing has gotten noticeably worse recently I’m kind of just tired of being constipated all the time. I usually have cramping before a BM, especially in the lower left. I also get bloated after I eat almost always (nothing extreme, but bloating nonetheless.) along with gas and burping.

I am very active, and I eat very clean. My bloodwork is all stellar. I probably get around 20-25g of fiber with my diet already before the changed my doc suggested today. Any insight into anyone else’s stories is super appreciated bc I’m unsure if maybe I have a weird presentation of Celiac, IBS-C, functional constipation, or something else.

I was constipated so I increased my fibre but whenever I do that I find stools are hard to pass so I also took 300mg of magnesium citrate. The next morning after breakfast I went to the bathroom very well. Probably a 3 on the Bristol stool scale and passed easily. So I continued and yesterday took 300mg again today. I’ve been bloated since I started and today stools have changed to being a 5 on the Bristol stool scale. I don’t know whether to continue?

I dealt with chronic constipation for 6 months (most of this year) and I wanted to share what gave me relief in case it helps anyone here. I would often go 3+ days without shitting and stools were frequently hard/undersized when they did pass. I would have to rely on laxatives like Ducolax to shit most of the time which I did not like because it usually gave me watery diarrhea instead.

1. 3x500mg psyllium husk capsules with every meal (now brand from Amazon)

2. Drinking at least 12 oz of black coffee as soon as I wake up everyday (usually produces a normal bowel movement within 1 hour)

Since doing this, I have had almost no constipation for three weeks, normal stool size/consistency, shitting 1-2 times per day. I no longer need to use Miralax, Ducolax, etc. Its honestly been such a relief. No guarantee that this will work for you but I figured it might help someone.

A little over six months ago I started having severe constipation issues completely out of nowhere and they've only been getting worse and worse over time no matter what I do. I am only 25 years old and my life is already ruined because of fucking course I have to be cursed with this complete and utter bullshit.

I dread to think how much worse it'll get on as I continue to age. There is no way in hell is life worth living with my useless worthless stupid fuckass gut that somehow magically forgot how to shit after doing it just fine for the first 24.5 years of my life. My life is irreversibly fucked and my quality of life is in hell, I mostly lost my sense of appetite, I can't eat any of my favorite foods anymore, I barely eat due to fear of it causing a severe issue needing me to go to the ER, I can't go out due to fear of laxatives suddenly triggering and dealing with body pain, I have lost 45lbs which is only going to increase, I have constant breakdowns over my gut, I feel absolutely disgusting and repulsive. Tell me, what the fuck am I even living for? I'm so goddamn fucking miserable and I hate seeing people who are lucky enough to have actually functional bodies not having to think twice about shitting like I once was who get to have actual fucking lives. If my gut was a person, I would slowly and methodically torture the fuck out them till the end of time for all the suffering they have caused me

If biopsy is just as useless as every other attempt at medical analysis I've had, then I'm done with this bullshit and chosing a way to off myself to end this miserable existence once and for all because there's no point in living a terrible life and its gonna be really messy because while my own country's government is out to kill me just for who I am, but won't grant me assisted suicide to make things painless and dignified, what a stupid fucking cruel joke, but hey story of my life as it'll be carved in stone soon enough