How to Reduce Perimenopause and Menopause Bloating: Tips and Natural Remedies

Bloating, especially around your cycle, is a common and uncomfortable symptom experienced during perimenopause and menopause. The hormonal changes can contribute to bloating and other digestive issues. While these changes can be frustrating, you can ease these symptoms naturally.

In this article, we’ll explore why hormonal changes contribute to bloating, along with practical tips and natural remedies to help address it. 

What Causes Bloating During Perimenopause and Menopause

Understanding the underlying causes of bloating during perimenopause and menopause is the first step to managing it. In this section, we’ll explore the key factors.

Hormonal Changes

During perimenopause and menopause, estrogen and progesterone levels decline as ovarian function decreases. Your gut has receptors for these hormones, suggesting that these hormones help regulate digestion and water balance. The hormonal decline can cause bloating and other gut changes.
 

• Progesterone: Since your late 20s, your ovaries produce less and less progesterone, before eventually stopping altogether at menopause. Progesterone promotes gut movement, so low progesterone can contribute to constipation and bloating
• Estrogen: Estrogen regulates both gut motility and flora. Overall, estrogen goes down with age, starting in your 30s, until menopause. This decline can contribute to gut and water retention issues

Fluid Retention

Fluid retention during perimenopause and menopause can stem from several factors, including hormonal shifts and the natural aging process. These changes can make it harder for the body to maintain its fluid balance, leading to bloating and discomfort.

Estrogen’s Role

Estrogen affects how your body controls water through a hormone called arginine vasopressin (AVP), which helps manage how much water your body keeps.

When estrogen is low, AVP production increases, causing your body to retain more fluid and produce less urine. This effect becomes even more noticeable as estrogen naturally declines.

Estrogen also impacts the renin-angiotensin-aldosterone system (RAAS), a key part of how the body controls fluid and sodium levels. During menopause, hormonal changes cause the body to retain more sodium, which makes your body hold onto more water, contributing to fluid retention and increased blood pressure.

Progesterone’s Impact

Progesterone helps balance fluid levels by counteracting some of estrogen’s effects. It works against aldosterone, a hormone that causes the body to hold onto sodium. By reducing aldosterone, progesterone helps keep both sodium and fluid levels in check. However, as progesterone decreases with age and during menopause, this balance weakens, which can lead to more bloating and a feeling of fullness.

Aging

Fluid balance becomes more challenging as we age. During menopause, these natural age-related changes and hormonal fluctuations can make fluid retention more pronounced and harder to manage.

Slower Gut Motility

During perimenopause and menopause, lower progesterone and estrogen slow digestion, keeping food and waste in your system longer. Your gut has receptors for these hormones, and progesterone specifically helps stimulate movement. 

When progesterone drops, digestion slows, which can contribute to luteal phase constipation for some women. This sluggish digestion can lead to gas buildup, discomfort, and bloating.

Change In Gut Stress Response

One reason for slower gut movement could be a change in your stress response. As estrogen and progesterone levels decrease, the limbic system, which controls stress, anxiety, and emotions, may also change. These hormonal changes can affect how your body handles stress, which may slow down gastric motility.

A study examined how stress affects digestion in women at different stages of menopause – premenopausal, perimenopausal, and postmenopausal. While stress levels were similar across all groups, perimenopausal women had slower gut movement at rest. During stress tests, premenopausal and postmenopausal women showed a clear slowdown in gut movement, but perimenopausal women didn’t.

This suggests that hormonal changes during perimenopause may influence how the body reacts to stress, impacting digestion differently.

When stressed, your body prioritizes survival over digestion, diverting energy to handle the perceived threat. In today’s world, stress from news, work, and constant notifications keeps your body in a heightened state, making it harder for your digestive system to function smoothly.

This slows digestion, causing food to sit in the gut longer, increasing fermentation and gas production, and contributing to bloating.

Stress also alters gut motility and increases sensitivity, leading to more bloating and discomfort. In some cases, stress can trigger abnormal abdominal reflexes, causing abdominal muscles to relax instead of contract when gas builds up, worsening bloating.

Additionally, stress can weaken the gut barrier, making it more sensitive to irritation and inflammation. Over time, chronic stress disrupts gut-brain communication, amplifying digestive issues.

Supporting your body with the proper nutrition can help counteract the effects of stress on digestion. Learn more about how diet impacts nutrition and what foods and nutrients can help.

Gut Microbiome Imbalance

Estrogen supports both microbial diversity and balance. However, as estrogen levels drop during menopause, this balance can shift.

With the decline in estrogen, the diversity of your gut microbiome tends to decrease, and the types of bacteria present can change. After menopause, many women’s gut microbiomes start to resemble men’s, likely because of the drop in hormones like estrogen and progesterone.

This shift often reduces beneficial bacteria such as Firmicutes and Ruminococcus, while other bacteria, like Butyricimonas, Dorea, Prevotella, Sutterella, and Bacteroides, may become more abundant.

An imbalanced gut, or dysbiosis, can create the perfect environment for gas-producing bacteria or fungi to thrive. As they ferment undigested food, they release methane, hydrogen, and carbon dioxide gases, contributing to bloating, discomfort, and digestive irregularities.

Leaky Gut

Estrogen and progesterone also help keep your gut lining strong by protecting cells that produce mucus and boosting the proteins that hold the gut lining cells together. When estrogen levels drop, this protection weakens, making the gut lining more vulnerable.

A weakened gut barrier allows unwanted substances to slip through, often called leaky gut. This can trigger an increased inflammatory response, leading to digestive discomfort, bloating, and other gut-related issues.

Additional Factors That Contribute to Bloating

Hormones aren’t the only things that cause bloating during perimenopause and menopause. Factors like diet, stress, and lifestyle changes can also play a role. Understanding these additional causes can help you find more ways to ease discomfort and support your digestion during this time.

Food Intolerances/Sensitivities

Certain foods can also contribute to bloating during perimenopause and menopause, especially if you have food allergies, intolerances, or sensitivities. These reactions can cause inflammation, digestive discomfort, and gas buildup, making bloating worse. Also, your physiologic changes due to hormonal declines can compound the symptoms. The most common culprit foods include:

• Dairy (due to lactose intolerance)
• High-FODMAP foods
• Histamine-rich foods
• Gluten-containing foods. 

If you suspect certain foods are triggering your bloating, eliminating them from your diet or using digestive enzymes may help. Learn more about how food-related reactions contribute to bloating.

Digestive Enzyme Insufficiency

If you often feel bloated after eating, it could be a sign that your body isn’t producing enough digestive enzymes to break down your food properly. Digestive enzymes are essential for breaking down the food you eat into smaller components that your body can absorb.

Without enough of them, undigested food can travel to your colon, where gut bacteria start to ferment it. This fermentation process produces gases like methane, hydrogen, and carbon dioxide, leading to bloating, discomfort, and other digestive issues.

Learn more about how digestive enzyme supplements can help with bloating and gas.

Poor Sleep Quality

Poor sleep can lead to bloating in a few different ways. One of the main culprits is stress hormones like cortisol. When you don’t get enough sleep, cortisol levels rise, increasing stress and triggering digestive issues, including bloating.

Lack of sleep also messes with fluid balance in your body. Sleep deprivation lowers aldosterone, a hormone that helps regulate sodium and potassium. When aldosterone levels drop, it can cause your body to retain more sodium and water, which can contribute to bloating.

You can explore the full article here for a deeper dive into how sleep impacts digestion and bloating.

Supplements for Menopause Bloating

Supplements can be a helpful way to ease bloating. In this section, we’ll look at some of the most effective options for supporting digestion and reducing bloating during perimenopause and menopause. 

Probiotics

While many factors can contribute to bloating during menopause, taking probiotics can be an important step in managing these symptoms. Probiotics help support a healthy gut microbiome by restoring balance and supporting digestive function.

By promoting a diverse and balanced gut flora, probiotics can help with the breakdown and absorption of food, reducing the likelihood of fermentation that leads to gas and bloating. Additionally, they may help regulate gut motility, which can reduce or relieve the bloating caused by sluggish digestion.

The benefits of probiotics go beyond just gut health. Some studies also suggest that probiotics can support the gut-brain connection, which can help mitigate stress-related digestive symptoms common during menopause.

Probiotics can play a helpful role in managing menopause symptoms by supporting hormone balance and overall wellness. A key factor is the estrobolome, a group of gut microbes that process estrogen. Maintaining a healthy gut can help regulate estrogen levels and reduce symptoms like hot flashes, mood swings, and vaginal health issues.

Probiotics, especially those in the Lactobacillus genus, show promise in studies for:

• Reducing hot flashes
• Improving mood
• Supporting vaginal health
• Bone health
• Weight management

Probiotics are not, however, a cure-all and should be considered part of a broader menopause care plan.

Learn more about how probiotics can help with menopause symptoms in this article. 

Magnesium

Magnesium can help alleviate bloating, especially when caused by fluid retention due to hormonal fluctuations. It works by helping:

• Maintain fluid balance
• Support cell membrane function
• Boost nitric oxide production

These actions help manage fluid distribution and reduce excess bloating.

A study of 38 women experiencing hormonal fluctuations with PMS took 200 mg of magnesium oxide daily for two months. Compared to a placebo, those taking magnesium experienced significantly less fluid retention. While magnesium supplementation did not show immediate results, bloating improved after two months of consistent supplementation.

Just like probiotics, magnesium offers more than just relief from bloating. It can also help with:

• Maintaining a healthy weight and fat distribution
• Reducing hot flashes
• Promoting healthy sleep
• Supporting brain health and mood
• Strengthening bones
• Balancing hormones

For added support, Magnesium Breakthrough provides a powerful blend of seven different forms of magnesium to help you feel your best. Learn more about how magnesium can support you during perimenopause and menopause. 

Digestive Enzymes and Betaine HCL

Earlier, we discussed how insufficient digestive enzyme production can prevent your stomach and intestines from adequately breaking down undigested food. Adding digestive enzyme supplements, along with betaine HCl, can help. 

Betaine HCl provides additional stomach acid, which can support better digestion of proteins and other foods, while digestive enzymes break down fats, carbs, and proteins more efficiently. Together, they minimize undigested food in the digestive tract, reducing bloating and helping you feel more comfortable after meals.

For a more comprehensive digestive boost, Masszymes provides a high-potency blend of enzymes to break down proteins, while HCL Breakthrough supports your stomach acid levels, optimizing digestion. Together, these two address bloating and discomfort from undigested food, helping you feel lighter and more at ease.

If gluten or casein causes digestive issues, Gluten Guardian can help support the digestive process by providing enzymes that break down these proteins more efficiently. While it’s not a solution for gluten intolerance or celiac disease, it can help reduce discomfort like bloating and gas, particularly when consuming gluten-containing foods.

Peppermint Oil

Peppermint oil is commonly used to support digestive comfort. It may help relax the muscles in the gut, which could ease occasional bloating and support the movement of gas and food through the digestive system.

Some research suggests that it also affects how the gut perceives sensations, potentially reducing feelings of tightness or discomfort.

One of the easiest ways to take peppermint oil is in enteric-coated capsules, which help deliver the oil to the intestines. Another option for gentle digestive support is peppermint tea, which is great directly after meals.

Peppermint isn’t the only tea that aids digestion. Discover probiotic tea and other digestion-supporting teas in this article. 

More Tips for Reducing Perimenopausal and Menopausal Bloating  

Looking for more ways to ease bloating during perimenopause and menopause? Along with diet and lifestyle adjustments, these additional tips can help you feel lighter and more comfortable.

Exercise and Yoga

If you experience bloating due to trapped gas, exercise is a great way to move the gas out of your body and ease discomfort. 

A study examined the effects of short-duration postprandial walking on bloating in 94 healthy individuals. Participants walked 10–15 minutes after each meal for four weeks, with symptoms assessed before and after. Those who walked after meals experienced a significant improvement in:

• Bloating
• Feelings of fullness
• Abdominal discomfort

Yoga may help relieve bloating by improving energy flow in your lower abdomen and supporting digestion. Certain postures and techniques, like:

• Uddiyana Bandha (abdominal lock) involves exhaling fully and pulling the belly inward and upward, almost like creating a vacuum in the abdomen.
• Agnisara (abdominal muscle movement) is a rhythmic contraction and release of the abdominal muscles while holding the breath out.

Both poses gently stimulate the intestines and vagus nerve, which can be especially beneficial for those with digestive discomfort. Other common yoga poses to help ease bloating include:

• Child’s pose
• Cat/Cow
• Cobra
• Standing fold
• Full wind pose (lying on your back, knees to chest)

Yoga also promotes relaxation and reduces stress—common triggers for bloating—by calming the nervous system through breathing practices like slow sectional breathing and alternate nostril breathing.

Abdominal Massage

When things move slowly, and gas builds up, taking some time to perform an abdominal massage could stimulate more movement and provide some relief. It is a good idea to work with a licensed massage therapist with experience in visceral manipulation, especially if it’s your first time treating digestive issues with an abdominal massage.

A meta-analysis of 13 studies and 830 participants explored the effects of abdominal massage on digestion. Those using massage experienced more regularity and less bloating.

To perform abdominal massage:

1. Lie down on your back with a pillow under your knees, if needed.
2. Place your hand on your belly and take a few moments to relax and focus on your breathing.
3. Begin by using the palms of your hands and massage in a clockwise direction several times.
4. You can use your knuckles or fingertips to apply deeper pressure along the colon’s path.
5. If you feel any tight spots, pause and apply gentle pressure while taking deep breaths.
6. End the massage with softer, sweeping motions from your ribcage down to your lower abdomen.

Note: Wait at least an hour after meals to perform the massage

Identify and Avoid Your Trigger Foods

If food intolerances or sensitivities trigger your bloating, the best approach is to identify and avoid the culprits. One of the biggest contributors to bloating is FODMAPs—a group of fermentable carbohydrates that some people struggle to digest.

FODMAPs (Fermentable Oligosaccharides, Disaccharides, Monosaccharides, and Polyols) are in a variety of foods, including:

• Onions
• Garlic
• Beans
• Dairy
• Wheat
• Certain fruits  (such as apples, pears, watermelon, mangoes, and peaches)

When these carbs aren’t properly absorbed in the small intestine, they travel to the colon, where gut bacteria ferment them, producing gas and drawing in water. This can lead to bloating, discomfort, and digestive distress. To explore your sensitivities, keep a food journal to track your eating and how your body responds.

Work with a healthcare professional or dietitian if you’re unsure which foods to eliminate or reintroduce.

Not everyone reacts the same way to FODMAPs, so finding your triggers can make a big difference in managing bloating.

Increase Your Fiber Intake

A high-fiber diet can help reduce bloating by supporting digestion and improving gut health. While fiber is often linked to gas production due to fermentation in the colon, certain types of fiber help reduce bloating by promoting regular bowel movements and optimizing stool consistency.

Encouraging Regularity: Fiber helps keep bowel movements consistent, preventing constipation, which is a common cause of bloating.

Balancing Gas Production: Some fibers, like psyllium, are gentler on digestion and produce less gas than highly fermentable fibers. Be mindful of high-FODMAP fibers, such as those found in wheat, onions, and certain legumes, as they can contribute to bloating in sensitive individuals.

Supporting Gut Microbiota: Fiber feeds beneficial gut bacteria, leading to a healthier gut environment that may help manage bloating. 

Enhancing Stool Consistency: Soluble fiber (such as psyllium) absorbs water and forms a gel, making stools easier to pass, while insoluble fiber adds bulk to keep things moving smoothly.

The type of fiber matters—choose well-tolerated fibers like chia seeds, flaxseeds, and psyllium, and gradually increase your intake to help minimize discomfort while reaping the digestive benefits. [R30] Generally, it’s best to eat as many types of fibers as possible without triggering more bloating symptoms.

Manage Your Stress

Keeping your stress at bay can go a long way to supporting effective digestion. Incorporating stress management techniques into your daily routine can help keep digestion running smoothly. Some science-backed ways to support a calmer nervous system include:

• Deep breathing
• Meditation
• Yoga
• Walking (especially if it’s in nature)

Since the gut and brain are closely connected, managing stress helps you feel more at ease and can also improve digestion and reduce bloating. Supporting your adrenal health is especially important, as these glands help regulate stress hormones, blood sugar, and even hormone balance during menopause. When the adrenals are overworked, bloating, fatigue, and other symptoms can worsen.

For extra support, Stress Guardian is formulated with adaptogenic herbs and key nutrients that help your body handle stress more effectively, promoting a calmer mind, healthier digestion, and balanced adrenal function.

Hormone Replacement Therapy (HRT)

Earlier in the article, we discussed estrogen’s important role in gut health and the gut microbiome. It’s possible you may not overcome these changes without correcting the change in estrogen.

An optional approach such as hormone replacement therapy (HRT) might offer some relief for those who are struggling with significant hormonal fluctuations. HRT can help stabilize estrogen levels, which may, in turn, reduce the gut microbiome imbalance and alleviate symptoms like bloating. 

From research, we know that HRT reverses gut microbiome imbalances caused by loss of estrogen in women whose ovaries stop working before age 40. There aren’t enough studies on menopausal women, however, to know if the effects would be the same.

However, it’s important to note that HRT isn’t a one-size-fits-all solution. You should discuss its role in managing digestive symptoms with a healthcare provider to tailor the best approach for your needs.  

Conclusion

Bloating during perimenopause and menopause can be frustrating, but understanding the underlying causes—hormonal shifts, fluid retention, gut microbiome changes, and lifestyle factors—can help you take proactive steps to reduce discomfort. Supporting digestion with mindful eating, stress management, and targeted supplements can make a significant difference.  

While hormonal changes are inevitable, bloating doesn’t have to be. Making small, sustainable adjustments to your diet and lifestyle can support your gut health, ease digestive discomfort, and feel more comfortable in your body throughout this transition.