It’s been a while since I last wrote about gut health, but here we are! Time for another installment in this long series about the gut. For a refresher, start with these posts here and here before joining me today, as I’ll be uncovering the connection between your hormones and a healthy gut! From low testosterone for the guys out there to irregular periods, PCOS, and PMS for the girls. Mood swings, IBS, and mysterious weight gain are all hormone-related issues that are tied to poor gut health. Luckily, with the right info and approach, you can make drastic improvements all by supporting your gut. Ready to find out more? Then let’s get started!

 In Perfect Harmony

Our hormones and gut work together to balance out each other’s functions. 

If the protective lining of our intestines is damaged, our hormones start to take a turn for the worse. A big part of this has to do with something known as LPS. LPS, which stands for Lipopolysaccharide, is a natural byproduct created by the bacteria in the gut. Normally, LPS stays put. But when the protective lining of the gut is damaged or inflamed (as is the case with conditions like Leaky Gut), then LPS slips out and enters the bloodstream. After that, it becomes inflammatory, which activates our immune system. In response, the immune system increases the stress hormone cortisol and does everything to get rid of LPS. As a result, our body focuses more on eliminating inflammatory LPS and less on managing our hormones. [1] [2] [3]

This is just the beginning, though. From here on out, things start getting complicated.

 Bad News

Enter the hypothalamus, the part of our brain that plays a major role in hormone production and release. While the body is trying to remove LPS, the hypothalamus slows down the production of the sex hormone progesterone. (Specifically, by telling the hypothalamic-pituitary-gonadal or HPG axis to go easy on making progesterone, since it takes up too much energy.) 

Ladies, this is bad news. A telltale sign of low progesterone is irregular or absent periods. And if you’re pregnant, heads up: low progesterone also increases your risk of miscarriage. 

Low progesterone also impacts other hormones as well, like estrogen. Often, having low progesterone can lead to estrogen becoming dominant. It doesn’t necessarily mean you’ll be producing more estrogen; it could be that you’ve developed an imbalance between the two hormones. Which is key to remember: you don’t want too little estrogen, but you don’t want too much, either. 

Signs of excess estrogen include:

• Irregular Periods
• Light or heavy bleeding
• Bloating
• Low Sex Drive
• Insomnia
• Cold Hands or Feet
• PMS
• Mood Swings
• Depression or Anxiety
• Weight Gain (sudden, explained)
• Fatigue
• Hair Loss
• Brain Fog
• Memory Problems
• Hair Loss
• Sensitive or Swollen Breasts
• Fibroids (noncancerous growths in or around the uterus)

 For the guys out there, stay with me. In men, estrogen dominance manifests in the form of low sperm count, breast enlargement, low libido, and infertility. None of which sounds nice! [4]

So, let’s do a recap: If the gut becomes damaged or inflamed, it leads to a heightened immune response, which raises cortisol, and tells our hypothalamus to lower the production of the hormone progesterone. When progesterone production slows down, it can potentially lead to the dominance of the hormone estrogen. What you’re left with is a compromised digestive system and plenty of hormone imbalances. 

The Estrogen Connection

All right, we know what happens to our hormones when the gut is imbalanced. But what happens when it remains balanced? 

Let’s go back to estrogen. The goal is to keep it from becoming excessive. One of the ways our body naturally does this is through the gut. The gut plays an active role in processing estrogen, keeping it from causing chaos. 

Here’s how:

1) Any excess estrogen passing through the liver is converted into a less active form called an estrogen metabolite. 

2) The estrogen metabolite makes another pass through the liver, where it gets deactivated and converted into bile. A little bit also gets processed by the kidneys, which filter them out through urine. 

3) The rest goes down to the GI tract and undergoes the estrobolome. During the estrobolome, a tiny amount of estrogen is reactivated and sent back into the body. What little is left exits through our stool. 

[5] [6] [7]

For the estrobolome to work optimally, we need a healthy population of good bacteria down in the gut. If there’s an imbalance (aka, dysbiosis), then the estrobolome loses its efficiency; we wind up reabsorbing most of the estrogen, creating a hormonal imbalance.

Your Gut and Estrogen

With hormones and gut health, it takes two to tango, as they say. Though the gut’s estrobolome is important for getting rid of excess estrogen, both estrogen and other hormones like progesterone affect gut function. 

High amounts of estrogen cause IBS due to its ability to affect bowel movements and stomach pain. That makes it a hidden cause of constipation. Constipation and estrogen go hand in hand since they give the bacteria in the colon more time to reactivate the otherwise inactive estrogen in our stool. The reactivated estrogen comes back into our body and wreaks havoc and promotes more constipation. That’s not a fun cycle to be stuck in! [8] [9]

Progesterone, on the other hand, determines how fast or how slow our bowels can move. Think of it as a regulator; if things are going too fast, it can help to slow things down, and vice versa. If there isn’t enough progesterone to go around, we can experience IBS and irregular stools. Which by the way, encourages the not-so-fun estrogen-constipation cycle since low progesterone promotes excess estrogen. [10] 

Wrapping It Up

Putting it all together, you need both a healthy gut and balanced hormones to keep your body in good shape. Hormones help our body perform many functions outside of digestion, especially when it comes to reproduction. Our gut meanwhile is largely responsible for our immunity, mood, and absorption of nutrients (and plenty of other things!). But if one is thrown off, the other will soon follow, creating an endless cycle of symptoms. Symptoms that, if left unchecked, can quickly turn into something much worse. Luckily, this can all be prevented (and potentially improved) by supporting the two simultaneously. We’ll be going into that in Part 2, so stick around to learn how we can support the gut-hormone connection! 

Sources:

[1] https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/19666048
[2] https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3562736/
[3] https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC5794709/
[4] https://www.medicalnewstoday.com/articles/323280.php
[5] https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/16112414
[6] https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/28778332
[7] https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/27107051
[8] https://www.webmd.com/ibs/guide/hormones-ibs
[9] https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3823955/
[10] https://www.webmd.com/ibs/qa/how-do-estrogen-and-progesterone-affect-irritable-bowel-syndrome