My IMO diagnosis
Hi, I've been reading a lot of posts in this subreddit, and thought I'd post my journey so far to seek advice, and to just share my situation - maybe someone is going through a similar case.
To give some background, I've always had GI issues. It started when I developed lactose intolerance in high school. I would be dying from abdominal pain 2x a week at school, and quickly realized that it was gas pain caused from lactose. It's genetic, my dad and his side of the family are the same. Also, I've always been the constipated friend, my family kinda brushed it off because, once again, it runs in the family. My dad and I are "intolerant" to the same items of food. I'm saying "intolerant" because we've never gotten a formal diagnosis, but our farts are just abnormally smelly lol. My mom loves saying that I'm the exact same as my dad when it comes to my farts lmao. sorry, tmi. Whatever, I just accepted this and went on with my constipated life.
Fast forward to 2 years ago, I kept getting recurrent mild UTIs, which were all treated with antibiotics. Turns out I was passing a kidney stone. But I basically used 5-6 rounds of antibiotics in a very short period of time. That is the point where I realized that although I ate very healthily, walked around a lot, and worked out consistently - basically nothing in my routine changed - I gained 4 kgs.
I thought it was nothing, and that I just gained weight naturally. I didn't really care.
I went through 2 rounds of getting my eggs frozen (once that summer, and then this past December). And then after that point, the constipation got worse. I got into a cycle of being constipated for 3-4 days, and then getting diarrhea. I ended up gaining 2 more kgs, and I got an INSANE amount of acne on my cheeks and chin. Although I got acne as a teenager (bumps on forehead), I never got acne on my cheeks. And it didn't go away. They kept on coming. I didn't think the acne was related to my constipation.
I started dieting. At this point, I gained 7 kgs from my base weight, but I thought it was because I got older, and with time I just gained weight. So, I did the whole meal prep - clean eating, cook at home thing. I didn't even lose 1 kg. It would be 0.5 kgs, and then I would eat out once, and then +2 kgs the next day. I gave up after realizing I just wasn't losing weight. And I really don't want to hear the "oh maybe you counted wrong". No, this was abnormal. I already ate very healthy before, I just cut out my snacking etc.
And then eventually I thought enough is enough, I better get a formal diagnosis on what the hell is going on. I go to the doctor. I get diagnosed with IBS-c. Gives me the SIBO breath test. Bam. My baseline is 70 ppm for methane. hydrogen is fine. I really don't know what caused my methane levels to be this high, at this point, it's a chicken-egg situation. I've been through a lot that could have contributed an ibs flare-up / elevated methane levels.
So, we've come to now. My doctor prescribed me magnesium citrate, and miralax since magnesium citrate wasn't enough. I kind of like magnesium citrate better. I asked about antibiotics, since that has been the standard protocol, but she said the elevated methane levels were probably due to my constipation and that we would need to fix that first. My bowel movement is still not on a daily basis. Still have the bloating, abdominal cramps after eating sometimes, constipation (obvi). I am seeing my doctor soon, so I can update if anyone is interested.
I am reading that people have taken prokinetics, and then have treated their methane overgrowth. I'm wondering, what did you do? what protocol did your doctor/health practitioner give you?
Did anyone else have similar symptoms, especially the acne and difficulty to lose weight? I read that these are common prolonged side effects. I felt like I had brain fog and was depressed, but honestly I just thought that was just due to being in winter.
For success stories, did your acne get better? did you lose the weight? What did the timeline look like?