[irena_adler]

Originally Posted by LadyR

Irena, try eating water melon and ripe papaya (without the white part and no accidental seed!) It helps greatly with constipation.Also keeping very well hydrated and eating fiberous foods is good. Here in India we get something called Isabgol which is something like flaxseed and its the most effective thing for constipation. On a different note, why the switch from loose to constipation? Happened with me too and it eventually turned out that I had hypothyroidism. Have you got that checked?

Thanks for the advice! I've had my thyroid checked a couple of times for the IF and it's fine. The switch is probably due to a couple of things - with supplements, I'm helping to reduce my estrogen dominance and have extended my luteal phase to normal lengths, but progesterone can actually encourage constipation, so I fix one problem and get another. Second idea is that I got a stool sample screened for good and bad bacteria in my GI tract, and one bad one showed up. I took the treatment to get rid of it, which probably worked (have to get tested again) but that bacteria generally leads to diarrhea and now it's gone, so I'm constipated! I'm taking replacement good bacteria, but hasn't helped yet. I hate my body sometimes ... *grumble*