I’ve talked quite a bit about gut health and how it impacts our hormones. One thing I want to dig into more is gut issues without symptoms. This article that discusses a research study that found pathogenic strains of E. coli in the urine of women without UTI symptoms. They looked into their gut bacteria and found them as well. We’ve known for a while that there is a connection between gut bacteria and UTI’s, but this study really takes the cake with this. 

The Main Concern

The women had pathogenic strains of bacteria present. This is a huge concern because pathogenic bacteria change the environment in the gut. When the environment changes, this creates a beneficial environment for more pathogenic bacteria to grow and thrive. You can probably guess that this is a very different environment for beneficial bacteria. 

Once you have these pathogenic bacteria present you make it harder for your beneficial bacteria to survive (let alone thrive and reproduce). This creates inflammation in the gut, which leads to:

• digestive dysfunction making it harder for you ro break down your food
• an immune system on high alert (that cannot stay that way forever)
• stress-your body will signal to your brain that there is a stressor present

This underlying stress takes a toll on your hormones overtime. It’s important to remember it takes 100 days to build the follicle that releases the egg for ovulation. This means that the last 100 days impact your current cycle. 

Stress can sneak up on you. Tracking your cycles consistently is a game changer! Need help? Here’s my free healthy period guide. ​

Bring It All Together

The interesting thing is the women had ZERO symptoms of gut issues or a UTI. This is why I chose this article. A good number of my clients have resolved many of their gut symptoms by the time they come to see me, have greatly reduced them, or have never experienced them. There is often a question of why I insist on gut testing and THIS IS WHY. 

We can have underlying issues without necessarily feeling it. I also think that many women don’t know what it’s like to have healthy digestion because they’ve been struggling for so long they think it’s normal. 

The other day I had a client say she didn’t realize how messed up her digestion was until she met her husband and realized that pooping everyday and not being bloated after meals is possible and healthy. 

I myself struggled with constipation up until my early 20’s. I thought it was normal to poop every 2-3 days. Once I learned more about functional medicine and realized this was impacting my hormones and skin I got to work on this right away. 

Gut health matters for hormone health throughout all phases of a woman’s life. Here’s a post I did digging into the 5 areas of focus for gut healing.​

Gain Knowledge, Feel Empowered

Please don’t let this information scare you into worrying about your gut health. That’s not the point. I share this to show you that you have more power than you realize over your hormones. If you’re struggling with PMS, period pain, irregular cycles, PCOS, or endometriosis, let this show you that even though you may feel like you’ve exhausted all avenues–you likely haven’t. 

Here are a few questions I run through when learning new information:

1. Does this apply to ME? Ex: do I have any symptoms mentioned, a history of anything mentioned, etc. 
2. Have I done anything that could have already addressed this?
3. Who is sharing the information? Do they have a medical license, clinical experience with clients, etc. Be careful who you are getting your information from. 
4. If I take a few minutes to get quiet with myself, does this feel like it could help me or is right for me? This is the most important question to ask. Many of us already know what we need, we just need to listen.

Learn even more about the gut and how it can effect the skin in the podcast I did with Christa Biegler, The Gut Skin Connection.

Interested in learning more about if you have mineral imbalances that could be leading to some of your health issues? Take the free mineral quiz!

reminder: i’m currently taking on 1:1 clients. if you’d like to explore what it would be like to work together and if we are a good fit, fill out this form to get more details!​