Re: hormones
#304979 - 04/15/07 05:19 AM
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Coll
Reged: 10/14/06
Posts: 19
Loc: Maryland
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just another note about BC...
when i followed up with my GY, she had reminded me that the effect of the pill takes about 3 months so you may not notice a difference right away!
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Quote:
I have a few ideas that I want to get comments on. For those on oral contraceptives, have you noticed any effects on IBS?
Hey there! I was on oral bcp for 7 years and recently stopped getting periods for about 6 months and was told by my doctor to go off the pill to see if I would go back into a regular cycle. I have been off the pill for about 10 weeks now and I haven't had many IBS symptoms. Usually, I could credit this to just being my tummy doing whatever it wants, whenever it wants without much explanation *BUT* I went to the UK and Spain so was pretty stressed, eating bad food on my travels and all that and didn't have one IBS attack in 3 weeks.
That being said, I got gutsy and have since been eating really, really crappy food and have had bad gas and one day of bloating and needing to run for the loo (though not real D once I got there). Am pretty sure this could be solved by eating a more normal diet.
Is it the BCP change? I have no idea...but thought I'd share.
Also for everyone: has anyone noticed that just eating more in general, not at one time but the day as a whole, causes them problems? I feel better when I eat less in general and that could be why winter is so tough. My appetite just dropped this month and could be leading to my stabilizing.
I don't really find the amount overall that I eat makes too much of a difference, but if I sat down and ate a really big meal, I am definitely uncomfortable and feel worried about it making me have to "go" more.
What about season, besides depression symptoms, do you have worse IBS symptoms in winter and if so why do you think that is?
What about stress, how much of a factor is that to you? I was stressing because my IBS was so bad I was having trouble working and when I got better I don't think my stress was less, so it is confusing.
I definitely think stress influences my stomach. When I get into an argument with my bf, my stomach automatically starts tying itself in knots. If I am stuck in traffic and think I Am going to be late for work, I feel all gurgly and nauseous. I think when life in general is more stressful, my stomach is definitely worse. I should mention, though, that I am taking an anti-anxiety med at the moment as several months ago my anxiety attacks got really bad and I felt sick all the time. So now that I am on it, I dunno how much of a difference it makes for how stress in general impacts my IBS.
Any comments will be helpful.
Hope this helps a little with solving your mystery!
Steph
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~~I'm not crazy, I'm just a little unwell-I know right now you can't tell~~Matchbox 20
IBS-D,pain.
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A doctor on the news said it is safe and docs in med school and interns do this.
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IBS-A for 20 years with terrible bloating and gas. On the diet since April 2004. Remember this from Heather's information pages:
"You absolutely must eat insoluble fiber foods, and as much as safely possible, but within the IBS dietary guidelines. Treat insoluble fiber foods with suitable caution, and you'll be able to enjoy a wide variety of them, in very healthy quantities, without problem." Please eat IF foods!
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2 weeks
#305371 - 04/18/07 06:54 PM
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Tomorrow it will be 2 weeks since my horrible spell was over. I am still doing well. Last night I had the first bit of pain for 2 weeks. I had some sharp gas pain really low and I was gassy/burpy. Otherwise I have had very minor bloating/gas without pain. Today I started to get bloated. I peed and ate and it went away immediately. Usually I would have been super huge and bloated all afternoon and evening. I just cannot attribute my good streaks or bad streaks to anything. I even ate chocolate today! I just had such a rough winter (I was depressed and low in February and sad at work too) that I cannot bear for it to go back to that!
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IBS-A for 20 years with terrible bloating and gas. On the diet since April 2004. Remember this from Heather's information pages:
"You absolutely must eat insoluble fiber foods, and as much as safely possible, but within the IBS dietary guidelines. Treat insoluble fiber foods with suitable caution, and you'll be able to enjoy a wide variety of them, in very healthy quantities, without problem." Please eat IF foods!
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I am on the pill too and last year was put on Cerazette, I had some horrible side effect but they have now gone however I've put on more weight in a short space of time which I am sure must be to do with this pill and I also wonder what my IBS would be like if I wasn't on the pill.
I seem to be bloated all the time 
Niki
xxx
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I couldn't find any info online about oral contraceptives giving the side effects I was suspecting. It just seems like since they work by making your body think it is pregnant already that you would have the same side effects that pregnancy causes. I haven't seen anything about being bloated from the pill, only that it helps periods be lighter. Mine are light and I wouldn't want to lose that by going off but it would be interesting to see if I was less bloated off of them. I have been on since my IBS got bad with bloating. Before that time it was just a lot of C and occassional bad D. I don't like experimenting since I am very scared of getting pregnant. So if anyone hears anything about other side effects on the pill please post!
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IBS-A for 20 years with terrible bloating and gas. On the diet since April 2004. Remember this from Heather's information pages:
"You absolutely must eat insoluble fiber foods, and as much as safely possible, but within the IBS dietary guidelines. Treat insoluble fiber foods with suitable caution, and you'll be able to enjoy a wide variety of them, in very healthy quantities, without problem." Please eat IF foods!
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I haven't read the other responses, but are you aware that most "pills" have LACTOSE as a filler?????
How dumb is that? My Doc looked everywhere to find one that didn't use lactose but couldn't. And yes, I think that the pill can cause bloating.
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Formerly HanSolo. IBS, OCD, Bipolar, PTSD times 3.
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What about switching to an IUD? There's one in particular that contains NO hormones at all. But even if you did get the one that contains hormones, they would be directed to a specific area rather than systemically. An IUD would also keep your periods very light, if not eliminate them.
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Lisa, IBS-C (Vegan)
Stable since July 2007!
Mommy to Rhiannon Marie (Dec. 13, 2008)
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For me it's a bit early to say if there are patterns over the seasons.
I have also been thinking about if more food means higher risk of problems even if you spread it out over the day, but I'm not sure about that. I know I should be eating more, so... Maybe the big thing is to not increase the amount too quickly. Don't know.
Stress is a huge factor for me. And I am guessing that it's not just the obvious stress that you can really feel, but that it can be subconscious stuff too.
/Ulrika, IBS-D
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Note that you don't actually have periods while on the pill, whether you have a hormone-free week every four or not. What you do get is hormone withdrawal bleeding, but that's not the same thing as a period. There's a very complete discussion of this at The Well-Timed Period. The short form: you can skip the hormone withdrawal bleeding with no issues. It was just included in the original pill regimen to make it seem more "natural".
As I've said before, I'm on NuvaRing and I feel that it makes my IBS better since I'm not putting the hormones into my digestive system. And using it continously is great because the hormone-free week would make my IBS worse.
--AC
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