Diarrhoea during your period

Understanding the problem

As if having your period wasn’t enough, some women can also experience a bout of acute diarrhoea during their monthly period.

However, this link between diarrhoea and menstruation is not very well known, so few women realise there is treatment they can take to relieve their symptoms.

How common is menstrual diarrhoea?

It is actually fairly common for a bout of acute diarrhoea to coincide with your period. Approximately a third of women, who do not normally suffer from bowel complaints, experience gastrointestinal symptoms around the time of menstruation – typically gas, diarrhoea or constipation. The most common of these is diarrhoea – experienced by 19% of women.

The problem can be worse for women with Irritable Bowel Syndrome (IBS). At least 32% of women who suffer from IBS complain of diarrhoea around the time of their period.

Why does it happen?

Although the reason for bowel complaints during menstruation is unclear, it has been suggested that increased levels of the hormone ‘progesterone’, which is produced at this time, causes changes in the way the muscles in the gut wall contract (peristalsis).