Elevit and constipation....

Hi all,

I'm taking Elevit and damn it, I'm over being constipated...diet is balanced, drink a minimum of 2 litres of water a day, get plenty of fibre. Is anyone experiencing the same thing?

I love a regular poo (TMI I know :lol:) and am tired of my DH saying "if you were a mathematician, I'd give you a pencil and you can work it out...". :wall: Just charming. I feel ripped off that I can't do my biz as regularly as I did before I fell pregnant!! :lol:

Anyway, I guess I want to know if any of you are taking Sennekot (sp?) as well when required? I've just had about 10 prunes this evening to hopefully get the blockage moving!!

Hi there , i have been taking elevit for 3 months with no problems.

My midwife told me it can happen because of the iron in it. actually she said it can happen with any multi which has iron in it. Lluckily it didnt happen to me. you could try metamucil or something like that?

Ouchies Brooke, But you have such a delightful way of wording it all I can't help but smile. Hope your date gets better soon hun.

I suffer bad enough at the best of times with constipation. I am bad, I still haven't started to take any pregnancy vitamins, even though each week I plan on buying some.

A little word to you though, do not go into labour constipated, it can really stall or hold things up. Quite literally. This time around I am planning on using a enema before we hit the nitty gritty.

Sorry to hear you are suffering so... I couldn't take Elevit for that very reason. I would switch to Blackmores or Cenovis - both of these have much less iron and they also have the iodine that is necessary too now that we don['t eat so much iodised salt.

You have a loooong way to go and as Brooke experienced constipation can become more than just a pain in the bum! Good luck... :hug:

Thanks goils. I think I'll try Metamucil first...oooh, I think it's poking it's head out. Mission impossible could be executed. :lol:

Goodluck! If you are taking Elevit because you want the extra iron you could change prenatal vitamin brands as I mentioned above and supplement with something like Floradix. Floradix is a MUCH gentler and readily absorbable way to take an iron supplement that won't leave you constipated... Just a thought :hug:

Evacuation complete. :lol: :lol:

I found that fabfol was heaps less constipating than elevit.

I agree that the Fabfol was not making me as constipated but as I had a fair bit of Elevit left, i use to take it for a two or three days and then use Fabfol and kept doing this til I ran out of the Elevit.

i had slight constipation when i started Elevit but after a month it settled down and my body adjusted to the extra iron. good luck!

I too seem ok on the Elevit but have noticed a change in color (sorry tmi) which it mentions in the brochure!
Flowerchild mentioned something about not eating as much iodised salt - can anybody explain this. I noticed my cooking salt is iodised so was just wondering if I should/ shouldn't be using this or salt in general. Sorry to crash the thread slightly....

Sorry Mummy - I didn't mean to alarm you.

Blackmores is one of the few supplements that offers supplementation of iodine. Iodine has been shown to be depleted in many Australians... Iodine is found in iodised salt, fish and some nuts. It's not easy to get from a "normal" Aussie diet where folk don't eat much seafood. Generally pregnant women limit their seafood intake due to the fear of mercury overload.

Many people nowdays eat rock salt and sea salt which has very little if not any iodine in it. If you eat iodised salt that will give you some iodine so that's a good thing!

i've taken elevit throughout both my pgs and not experienced any constipation.
constipation is a side effect of being pg not the suppls you take in my humble opinion, however I also eat LSA (linseed, sunflower & almond) everyday on my cereal or in a smoothie or salad (for variety so I don't get bored). Its got a slight nutty flavour and is good for you; its avail at any health food store .. I'd give this a go over metamucil or senakot personally!

That's so true - the progesterone increase slows down the gut and this can cause constipation in many women. However, iron is famous for causing constipation. So this coupled with the higher progesterone causes many *blockage* problems for lots of women. I was on iron for one of my pregnancies and it was HELL. Likewise as I said above for me the Elevit stopped things pretty much in their tracks too!!!!

Does anyone know if they've increased the iron level in Elevit in the last 12 months or so? I've taken it with my two previous pregnancies and never had a problem, but this time I am having a few issues with it.

Although being an IVF prg, I know my progesterone levels were initially off the charts, I would assume that this settles down over time - Deb??

I'm not on elevit, but was experiencing the joys of pregnancy blockages anyway... So, I've changed over to wholegrain breads, crackers etc. & tried to increase fruit & veg in my diet (as well as taking metamucil every morning). This has done the trick (made me more regular than I was pre-pregnancy!!).

Helga's wholegrain is really high fibre (I think 7g per serve), as are ryvita multigrain crackers.

I am not sure if they have increased the iron Willow - I've not heard they have...
No with that high progesterone Willow it will stay that way and that as you say increases the old constipation! So, perhaps that is why you are more constipated this time around. As I said above if it's a real issue I would change to another prenatal vitamin and take a natural iron supplemnet like Floradix etc...

Like you I had off the chart progesterone (320) at 15dpo and I know what it can do to the bowels!!!! If I went near iron at the moment I would be in trouble I think! :rolleyes: