#212: Does Your Gut Affect Your Estrogen Levels?

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So it's a really common picture to have heavy periods, painful periods, severe PMS, migraines before your period, excess weight that you can't release, irritability, feeling like short-tempered, snappy, all the signs of estrogen dominance. Along with gut issues.

Hi, I'm Dr. Tabatha, the Gutsy Gynecologist. I'm a triple board-certified OB-GYN and functional medicine physician. I've embraced the world of functional medicine and wellness through my own personal health journey, and I'm super excited to share my wisdom and unique perspective as it pertains to women's health. After caring for thousands of women, I've come to realize that your gut health determines your gyn health and your overall health, and it's a It's a super gutsy thing for me to go against conventional gynecology practice to bring you the truth. No more Band-Aid medicine, ladies. We're talking root cause resolution on this show. So if you're struggling with hormone imbalance, weight gain, period issues, anxiety, insomnia, you name it, then you've come to the right place, and I want to be your gutsy gynecologist. So welcome.

All right, I'm going to answer a question this week. Somebody messaged me and said they saw a functional practitioner who did stool testing, and they were told that their beta-glucuronidase levels were elevated and it was contributing to their estrogen issue and that they should take calcium D-glucarate. Is that true? So yes, let's talk about this. This is really important. So it turns out the bacteria living in your gut have a huge impact on how you metabolize your hormone and whether or not you remove estrogen from your body. So here's what's up. We make 3 types of estrogen. Estrodial, the main growth hormone, estrone, which is more of an intermediate metabolite. It can come from estradiol. It also is made in our fat cells from testosterone, and estriol, which is a weaker estrogen that can come from estradiol conversion, and it's usually produced in high levels during pregnancy and. After menopause, so these three estrogens they get used in the body. Estradiol gets turned into estrone, and then your body decides whether it's done using it. Once it's done using it, it sends it to the liver to be metabolized down this two hydroxyestrone pathway that is getting a methylation group put on it so that it is. Able to be sent to the urine and stool for removal from your body. Your body's done using it. Once it goes into the stool, this estrone can be reabsorbed. It can be pulled from the stool, from your intestines, back into your bloodstream and used again. And the mechanism by which this happens. Is because of an enzyme called beta-glucuronidase. This enzyme is actually produced by bacteria in your intestines, in your microbiome. So if you have issues with estrogen dominance, meaning you have too much estrogen compared to progesterone in your body, you don't want to reabsorb that estrogen you're trying to get rid of. You're done using it. Your body's trying to remove it. But sometimes we overgrow too much bad bacteria from a poor diet, from chronic stress, from not feeding our good microbiome, all kinds of reasons that we have gut dysbiosis. That's a fancy term for the wrong bacteria living in our gut. These bad bacteria increase beta-glucuronidase production. That causes the estrogen to be reabsorbed. The garbage tag that your liver worked so hard to put on there gets cut off, and the estrogen gets reabsorbed, and you worsen your estrogen dominance. So it's a really common picture to have heavy periods, painful periods, severe PMS, migraines before your period. Excess weight that you can't release, irritability, feeling like short-tempered, snappy, all the signs of estrogen dominance along with gut issues. And you don't necessarily have to have outright obvious gut issues for this elevated beta-glucuronidase situation to happen. Sometimes we only see it on stool functional stool testing. And we don't have outright symptoms, but the most common symptom that I see with estrogen dominance is constipation because the bad bacteria that are contributing to this problem often slow down your gut so that you're not evacuating on a regular basis. You are only having a bowel movement every other day, every couple days. Or you're alternating, alternating between diarrhea and constipation. And here's the problem: when you're constipated and the stool is sitting in your intestines for longer than it should, that's even more time for that estrogen to get reabsorbed back into your bloodstream, into your body. You don't want to be constipated. It's a really big deal. Your body is trying to get rid of toxins and used up. Hormones. It needs to go, needs to get removed from your body. So if you are constipated, it's not just a nuisance. Don't put up with it. It's affecting your entire hormone balance. So figure this piece out, okay? If you're constipated, you have signs of estrogen dominance. I have a product called Estrotame Plus. It is a game changer. It has the calcium D-glucarate in it. To stop this beta-glucuronidase production and function. It also has diindolylmethane, which helps your liver process your estrogens more appropriately, so it is being metabolized down the right pathway. These 2 combined can significantly reduce all of these symptoms that you're having of estrogen dominance and constipation. And it's actually fixing the root cause of why it's happening. It's not a band-aid like taking a birth control pill, okay? Or Miralax. Please don't use Miralax if you're constipated. If you are constipated, you want to start with magnesium. Magnesium is the most common mineral deficiency in America and probably All over the world because of a few reasons, which I talk about in my book. But getting enough magnesium is often all you need to have regular bowel movements once a day. So you could take MagLift at bedtime, take 2 of those. If you're still having issues, yes, it's probably gut dysbiosis. It's probably a microbiome issue. And so listen to my other episodes on leaky gut, gut dysbiosis. But consider Estrotame Plus if you have these symptoms of estrogen dominance, especially if you also have constipation. You don't have, like I said, you don't have to have that, but if you have the two combined, you gotta take care of that or it's just going to get worse. Symptoms of estrogen dominance as they go on over time and they're not taken care of, they can increase your risk of developing breast cancer or uterine cancer because you keep absorbing this estrone and it can go down this 4-hydroxy pathway that we don't like too much of. That's what can damage cells. That's what can damage DNA and start to increase our risks of cancer. So it's not hormones that cause cancer. It's how our body metabolizes them, breaks them down, or doesn't remove them efficiently because of other problems going on. So I hope that answers your question.

Yes, you want to take care of that.

I'm so glad you did a stool test. Functional stool testing— it has to be functional stool testing— is the absolute best way to reclaim your health. I love stool testing. I want every patient I see to have stool testing because health begins in the gut, but disease begins in the gut as well. So if you want answers— to why you're struggling, look to the gut.

All right.

See you next time. Bye.