The monthly scourge of ‘period poop’ is real. Here’s why your gut acts up

Menstrual and digestive discomfort often coincide, and a researcher who has been looking in to it for a decade tells us what she learned Every period, right on schedule: the cramps arrive, and right behind them, the urgent need to poop. If this is your experience, you’re in good company: in one study, 73% of healthy premenopausal women reported at least one significant gastrointestinal symptom in the days before or during their period. Abdominal pain and diarrhea were the most common complaints, but women reported nausea and constipation too. Menstrual and digestive discomfort often coincide: “If you ask women about ‘period poops’ they’ll tell you they’re having menstrual cramps and those GI cramps at the same time,” said Taylor Judkins, a nutrition researcher at the University of Florida who has spent more than a decade studying the phenomenon. Period-related GI symptoms are common enough to have their own moniker. The science, however, has barely kept up. Judkins has personal experience with the phenomenon; when she first went looking for research on the phenomenon as a university student, she found almost nothing. A decade later, she says, there’s still a lot to