The gut is hormonally responsive: estrogen and progesterone both affect how fast the bowel moves, and a subset of gut bacteria influences how much estrogen is reabsorbed. That makes new digestive symptoms in perimenopause genuinely common. It also makes them easy to over-attribute. Persistent bloating, a lasting change in bowel habit, and blood in the stool all need investigating rather than explaining.
Two things are true at once. Digestive symptoms really do change in the menopause transition, through mechanisms that are well described. And the gut is the single most heavily marketed area in wellness, where a real association gets turned into a diagnosis and a supplement.
This check sorts your symptoms and, more importantly, flags the ones that should not be attributed to hormones at all.