Why Your Bloating Matters for Your Fertility (From a Holistic Nutritionist)
This Isn’t Your First Rodeo
Feeling like you have already tried everything to fix your hormones can be incredibly frustrating. The endless chase for that one thing that will finally make the difference is exhausting. Despite your best efforts, it doesn’t seem that anything works. And too often, I hear women like you tell me that they think their body is just broken.
And let me reassure you… You’re not broken.
Oftentimes, the easy-to-implement hormone hacks aren’t the ones that address the root cause of your imbalance. Your body is looking for a full body solution. Now, that doesn’t mean that you need to overhaul life and change everything just so you can feel like yourself again. But it does mean that something will have to change. So where should you look next?
The Gut-Hormone Connection
Nothing in your body functions in a silo. By that I mean that your hormones don’t function completely isolated from your nervous system, your digestive system, your muscular system—or any other system in your body. It’s common to think of each system separately because that’s what most of our doctors have done throughout our lives. For example, do you have a lot of snot and sinus issues? Go see the ENT. You have constipation? Go see a gastroenterologist. Are you feeling overwhelmed by the stresses of life? Try out talk therapy. That’s how most of us have thought about our bodies and health throughout our lives.
When we look at hormone health through a holistic lens, we need to consider all of the systems and how they’re connected. Why? So we can support the functioning of each system at a foundational level. When you do that, you can see the ripple effects across other parts of your body.
You may have guessed it by now, but the health of your digestive system is extremely impactful on your hormone balance, ovulation, fertility, and menstruation. The seemingly unrelated bouts of bloating, constipation, diarrhea, or upset stomachs you have can in fact be exacerbating your hormone imbalance. Once you draw the connection between these two systems, you’ll be shocked that you didn’t think about it sooner.
The digestive system isn’t only digesting your food—although, yes, we love that it does that for us—but it is also where some of your hormones like estrogen are metabolized and eliminated. If estrogen isn’t being eliminated as well as it should be, then relatively high estrogen levels in your body could present as bloating, acne, migraines, and other expressions of PMS. Inflammation that may exist in your gut can impact the overall stress load on your body, and elevated stress is one strong signal to your reproductive system to shut down ovulation until things calm down out there.
The bottom line? Optimizing your digestive function—and taking that bloating, gas, and constipation seriously—may be the foundation that you need to focus on in order to see the needle move on your hormone health.
What Does This Connection Look Like?
Understanding the gut-hormone connection can seem a bit far out, so let’s walk through a few specific examples that I’ve seen in my practice to clear things up.
Unpredictable periods & gut dysbiosis. A client came to me with unpredictable periods after coming off of hormonal birth control. She also experienced daily bloating, occasional constipation, and frustrating acne; in the past, she suffered from a stomach ulcer that had since resolved. We focused on support her digestive function and used a functional gut panel (the GI-MAP) which indicated that she had an overgrowth of inflammatory bacteria in her digestive system. Once we addressed the overgrowth through a combination of supplements, stress management, and good mealtime habits, she saw her menstrual cycles go from being 90+ days apart to having her first 35-day cycle since finishing birth control.
Need one more detail to believe the connection? This client then took a round of antibiotics for an unrelated issue (that her doctor treated her for) and shortly thereafter, she saw her cycles elongate and cystic acne return. We again focused on restoring balance to her gut microbiome through use of probiotics and targeted supplements which restored healthy cycles.
Constipation & PMS. My client was moving her bowels on average every two to three days when we started working together. This allowed for estrogen to recycle into her system which can happen when it’s not eliminated in a timely manner. Typical signs of elevated estrogen include heavy bleeding during menstruation, mood swings, migraines—basically all of those unsavory experiences that can come just before your period begins.
Our focus was on restoring daily bowel movement, which she did through proper hydration, incorporation of more non-starchy veggies, and use of targeted digestive enzymes.
Vaginal itching & bloating. This one is about myself actually, and what I experienced was years and years and years of vaginal itching. I figured that there must have been something wrong with my hormones because surely anything vagina-related must be caused by hormone issues, no? (Spoiler alert: not always.) I was also experiencing bloating and lived much of my adult life with acne that recurred all day, all month. Once I finally hit my personal health rock bottom (not to sound dramatic or anything), I realized that I had to restore my gut health which I did through targeted anti-bacterial and anti-fungal supports. I eliminated inflammatory foods from my diet, focused on mitigating stress, and tried to treat my gut bugs as well as I could.
Though I tested negative for yeast infections whenever I had a swab taken, it appeared that my gut dysbiosis (the fancy way to say “imbalance”) was impacting my vaginal health as well as my sinuses. Once I got my gut health back in good shape, I experienced less itching and my snot problems were a thing of the past.
That said, I suppose this example isn’t about the gut-hormone connection so much as it’s an example of the connection between your gut and what you may think is a hormonal problem in the first place. This is why it’s so important to understand the root cause of your imbalance. Because if you’re laser focused on your stress but forgetting your gut (or the fact that you only sleep four hours a night, etc. etc.) then you’re not going to move the needle.
Why Am I Only Just Learning About This Now?!
It’s 2026. Why haven’t you heard about this connection before? Take a beat to congratulate yourself because even by just reading this post, you know more than most Americans about how your hormones, digestion, and health interact. The reason why this isn’t so well known is because our medical system primarily focuses on identifying disease states and treating those diseases. They do an incredible job at doing just this.
But. What you need. What I needed. It’s about restoring balance… it’s about optimizing function… it’s about taking a holistic look at your life and making healthy changes that support your goals. If you’re looking for a quick fix, bandaid solution—well you won’t find that here. And that’s why it isn’t more widely talked about: because it’s not as quick, not as easy, not as sexy.
It is, however, a whole hell of a lot more helpful though and it will be worth it for you.
The Reality: Gut AND Hormones
Many of the women that I support through one-on-one coaching do experience both hormone imbalances and digestive imbalances. Theses are (unfortunately) two besties that oftentimes walk hand-in-hand. Yes, of course there are women who don’t experience both although in my experience, especially with the way most Americans live our lives, we don’t know how to support our gut health. We don’t know yet what is “normal” or not. And until we learn how to restore balance to our gut health, we will be fighting an uphill battle to get our menstruation and fertility back on track.
There are infinite tweaks and changes you can make to your routine, diet, and lifestyle in order to elevate your health. Some of those changes will have a greater impact than others. Getting clear on what’s happening with your gut health and digestion so you can make it work better? That’s the thing that moves the needle the most for the majority of women who work with me.
Where to Begin
If you’re feeling excited to pay more attention to your gut health, here are a few places to begin! Note that everyone is bioindividual and I don’t know you (yet) so what works for your best friend, for me, for an influencer—it may not be for you. If you’re ready for personalized guidance to help you reach your health goals, click here to learn more about my one-on-one program.
Incorporate non-starchy vegetables with each meal. Your gut microbiome loves and needs fiber. Fiber is found in plants and it makes up the cell walls of those plants. Figure out a way to include veggies with each meal of the day to give your gut the resources that it needs to support you! As a bonus, incorporating this type of veggie to your meal will also keep blood sugar levels in check (which means steady energy throughout the day).
Stop multitasking while you eat. Take time to chew thoroughly. This is the most underrated, totally free, and low effort way to support your digestion. By slowing down and chewing your food, you’re better able to break down the nutrients within the food. Relaxing while you eat enables your stomach to crank out stomach acid that contributes to this breakdown; when you’re stressed, this release of acid is impaired.
Avoid overly processed foods. Which foods are those? If it comes with a label on it and ingredient list, it might be one of them. To make this easy, open up your favorite AI chatbot and tell it about what you’ve had to eat for the last few days. Ask it what are the 3-5 most heavily processed items within that list, and then make a plan to remove and replace those items with a better alternative. Whole foods are the way to go.
Incorporate each of these changes for two to four weeks until it feels totally natural to you. Once you’re there, note any changes and move on to the next improvement or tweak. Remember: the best thing that you can do for yourself is to figure out the root cause of what’s going on and address that.
If you’ve tried everything and aren’t sure what that next step is or how to get to the root cause, grab my free guide designed just for you.