Cynthia Thurlow explains the estrobolome, a gut-based estrogen processor that recycles hormones when your liver-gut detox pathway breaks down. Poor diet, stress, and chemical exposures can trap estrogen in your body, raising levels 20-30% and causing brain fog, joint pain, and weight-loss resistance even on HRT.
Let's talk about the word estrobolome. Am I even pronouncing it right? I had never heard it before your book. So, what is it? Why does every woman listening need to know about this? I just want to say I had nothing to do with the naming of the estrobolome, but it is an estrogen processing center in the microbiome. And why is this important? Because this is where our body— it's a main site for how our body breaks down and metabolizes hormones, in particular estrogen. Here's the key theme. Our liver and our gut are two main sites of detoxification in the body. If they are working well, we will break down estrogen in the liver, we will package it up in the gut, and we will poop it out. So, when I talk about like pooping, yes, I know we're talking about this, but it's such an important, very basic thing. If we don't break down our estrogen properly due to toxins, the types of foods we eat, chronic stress, et cetera, we will recirculate that estrogen. So, when women are in perimenopause in particular, when we know estrogen levels can be 20 to 30% higher depending on what cycle you're in, this explains a lot of the symptoms, the brain fog, the joint pain, the weight loss resistance, the breast tenderness, all the symptoms that are not fun to experience. So, big, big takeaway about the estrobolome, this is the estrogen processing center of the body. and if we are not breaking it down properly and pooping it out, guess what? It gets recirculated. And this can happen to both women in perimenopause as well as menopause. And many people are surprised to know that, yes, there's a time in our lives when, as estrogen's declining, that you can be exposed to enough estrogen-mimicking chemicals in your environment, personal care products, and food that can tip off your estrogen balance in your body. Women will sometimes say, "How is it even possible?" "That my estrobolone could be such a mess if I'm in menopause. My body's not making a lot of estrogen anymore." And I was like, "That is correct." But estrogen-mimicking chemicals can offset the estrogen receptors in the body. They can be 100 times, 1,000 times more powerful than the hormone itself. So, when we talk about why it's important to be conscientious about what we're exposed to in those environments, that is why.
