With International Women’s Day (IWD) just around the corner, we are taking a deeper look at some of the invisible connections that affect female health.
IWD is a global day celebrating all women and largely focused on accelerating gender equality. Women’s health has a vital place in the IWD movement, as ultimately healthy, happy and balanced women are more likely to thrive.
Some of the most common health concerns facing women relate to digestive discomfort, hormones, stress and mental wellbeing. When we look below the surface of these issues, there is often an invisible connection that can be easy to miss.
For many women, suboptimal gut and microbiome health can quietly affect hormone balance, resilience to stress, mood and more. It can be a missing link to achieving whole-body wellness.
Optimising gut health can be a powerful way to help women stay balanced, grounded and resilient. Gut health is so important because the microbiome has many functions, including:
- Aiding the production and regulation of hormones and neurotransmitters
- Facilitating absorption of essential nutrients
- Supporting healthy oestrogen levels in the body
As women, we have unique physiology and our bodies are programmed differently to men. This may explain why many general health concerns affect women differently or more frequently, such as stress symptoms, mental wellbeing, skin appearance and digestive complaints.
🤍The Gut–Hormone Connection🤍
Your gut does more than digest food. Amongst other things, it also metabolises hormones and helps regulate levels of oestrogen in your body.
This is important because gut health and hormone balance go hand in hand. For some women, poor digestive function and microbiome balance can be an underlying factor exacerbating hormonal imbalances.
On the other hand, hormonal fluctuations in women can also strongly affect digestive comfort — leading to bloating, discomfort and irregularity.
Understanding Oestrogen – the Basics
Oestrogen is a key female hormone that significantly impacts women’s wellbeing and regulates menstrual cycles. In women, oestrogens are primarily made in the ovaries and then circulated throughout the body.
Understanding Oestrogen Metabolism
The female body clears excess oestrogen through the liver, kidneys and digestive tract. It is important that this process works efficiently to avoid build-up and maintain hormone balance.
Oestrogen made in the ovaries eventually circulates to the liver where it is inactivated via complex processes that convert oestrogen into inactive forms. These can then be excreted through our digestive and urinary tracts when we go to the bathroom (in stools and urine).
Once the inactivated oestrogen is transported from the liver to the gut, it can either be excreted through bowel movements or reactivated by gut bacteria and reabsorbed through the gut to re-enter the body.
Understanding Oestrogen – the Influence of Gut Health
The subset of intestinal bacteria in our gut that metabolise oestrogen are known as the “estrobolome.”
They produce a specific enzyme (β-glucuronidase) that converts oestrogen in the intestines from its inactive form back into its active form. This reduces oestrogen excretion and results in reabsorption of the reactivated oestrogen — increasing circulating oestrogen.
When the gut microbiome is healthy, it helps regulate healthy oestrogen metabolism. Here, the estrobolome produces optimal levels of β-glucuronidase which minimises reabsorption of excess oestrogen from the gut, allowing healthy elimination to optimise hormone balance.
If there is a microbiome imbalance (gut dysbiosis) with too much gut bacteria producing β-glucuronidase, oestrogen clearance is impaired and excess oestrogen can re-enter the body.
This becomes problematic as impaired oestrogen metabolism can contribute to oestrogen dominance and disrupt the delicate balance between the female sex hormones oestrogen and progesterone.
Constipation and slow transit time can also affect our ability to excrete oestrogen through the gut, leading to poor oestrogen clearance and higher oestrogen levels.
Regular bowel movements are therefore key to healthy hormone metabolism.
Evidence-based Strategies to Support Oestrogen Metabolism Through Your Gut:
- Consume more fibre-rich plants by eating a wide variety of whole foods such as flax, fruits and vegetables. Fibre nourishes healthy gut bacteria, keeps you regular, influences oestrogen metabolism and decreases the activity of β-glucuronidase in the gut.
- Limit excess alcohol. Drinking too much can alter the microbiome and increase β-glucuronidase activity, making it harder to maintain oestrogen balance.
- Moderate, regular exercise has been shown to benefit the gut microbiota. These gut changes help sustain a more balanced hormonal profile. Exercise also supports stress responses (by lowering excess cortisol through supporting the HPA axis) and promotes gut motility to keep you regular.
In Part 2, we explore the connection between gut health, stress, and mental wellbeing.
About the Author | 📑
Hi, I’m Abbie – a naturopath, nutritionist, herbalist, wellness and nature lover.
Graduating from university almost 20 years ago, I have spent my career supporting brands to develop and market effective and compliant health products through my companies Regulatory Training Direct and Natural Product Centre.
Despite not working in clinical practice, naturopathic principles are a huge part of my life. Nutrition is an essential cornerstone to health, and I love cooking nourishing tasting meals that help my family look, feel and perform at our best.
I currently live in a small seaside town in Australia with my husband and beloved fur-baby. We spent years living abroad so my home cooking tends to be globally inspired intuitive fusions with a naturopathic twist.
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