How gut health affects your cycle
Do you get sidelined by intense PMS symptoms? Are you knocked out by fatigue, headaches, crying spells, and painful bloating every month?
If you’re tired of PMS running a huge chunk of your life, you’re not alone. Most women suffer from PMS symptoms.
While scientists aren’t 100% sure what exactly causes PMS, everyone blames hormones. And they’re partly right.
But PMS isn’t just a hormone issue. Gut health and inflammation play a major role, too. And getting that under control can help balance out your cycle every month.
The Truth About PMS
PMS is a group of symptoms that kick in about 7 to 10 days before your period arrives. It can cause physical issues and emotional distress, making that time period unbearable. And research shows that up to 90% of women endure at least one sign of PMS, sometimes severe enough to interfere with normal activities.[1]
Common PMS symptoms can include:
- Anxiety and depression
- Crying jags
- Anger and irritability
- Food cravings
- Trouble focusing
- Insomnia
- Fatigue
- Water weight
- Headaches
- Joint and muscle aches
- Tender breasts
- Bloating and abdominal pain
- Diarrhea or constipation
Those symptoms are believed to be brought on by hormone fluctuations… but that’s just a piece of the full picture.
PMS Is About More Than Hormones
Of course hormones play a part in PMS symptoms, but they’re not the only driver. Two other factors have significant impact on PMS: inflammation and gut microbiome imbalances.
Research shows that inflammation greatly impacts PMS. One study that included 2,939 women found that having high levels of hs-CRP (high-sensitivity C-reactive protein), a key marker of inflammation, was linked to symptoms such as abdominal cramps, breast pain, weight gain, bloating, and moodiness.[2]
Gut microbiome imbalances, a condition called dysbiosis, also increases PMS symptoms and symptom severity.[3,4,5] In a healthy balanced gut microbiome, beneficial probiotic bacteria greatly outnumber harmful pathogens. With dysbiosis, those numbers get flipped, and pathogens overgrow in the gut. Dysbiosis can increase systemic inflammation, cause mood swings, and bring on a variety of gastrointestinal (GI) symptoms including bloating, diarrhea, and constipation.[6,7,8] And since the gut microbiome plays a key role in estrogen management, an imbalanced gut can lead to hormonal imbalances.[9]
Estrogen Balance Depends on Gut Microbiome Balance
Your gut microbiome includes an estrobolome, which contains special bacteria that regulate the amount of circulating estrogen in your body.[10]
Your body packs up the estrogen it’s not using and runs it through your GI system to get rid of it. That extra estrogen goes to the estrobolome, where the local bacteria produce beta-glucuronidase (an enzyme) to break it down. Then it reactivates some of the estrogen for use, while the rest gets excreted.[11] The goal is to provide the exact right amount of estrogen that your body needs.
But there’s a catch: Estrobolome function depends entirely on your gut microbiome being in healthy balance. If it’s in dysbiosis instead, that estrogen management system stops working properly. That can cause estrogen imbalances.[9] And those imbalances can lead to more and more severe PMS symptoms.
When your gut microbiome is in dysbiosis, pathogens dominate and destabilize the estrobolome. That disrupts the estrobolome’s estrogen balancing system by altering beta-glucuronidase production.[9,12]
Too much beta-glucuronidase leads to too much circulating estrogen[13], which increases PMS symptoms.[14] Too little of the enzyme lowers circulating estrogen and causes estrogen deficiency[15], which can also increase some PMS symptoms. Either way, too much estrogen or too little, can lead to PMS issues.
Balanced estrogen levels depend on a healthy estrobolome. And that depends on a well-balanced gut microbiome. Keeping your gut microbiome healthy and full of a diverse population of beneficial probiotic bacteria is one way to make PMS more manageable.
5 Practical Tips To Feel Your Best During PMS
If you’re dreading your next bout of PMS, there are simple proactive things you can do to help this part of your cycle go smoother. Here are five of the best ways to support hormonal and gut balance and keep PMS under control.
- Stay hydrated. Drinking lots of fluids, especially water and herbal teas, can help ease bloating.
- Cut back on salty and sugary foods. PMS can cause intense cravings, especially for salty snacks and sweet treats. Unfortunately, those are exactly the kinds of foods that can trigger or worsen PMS symptoms. Try to swap in more fruits, vegetables, and whole grains the week before and during PMS. Shifting your diet can help reduce PMS symptom severity.[16]
- Skip caffeine and alcohol. Both of those can intensify PMS and leave you feeling even worse. Plus, many women are more sensitive to the effects of alcohol during PMS.
- Get some exercise. Research shows that many kinds of physical activity help ease PMS symptoms.[17] Doing anything from yoga to walking to weight training can relieve both physical discomfort and emotional distress.
- Balance your gut microbiome with probiotics and prebiotics. Research shows that a healthy gut helps keep hormones in more stable balance throughout the menstrual cycle, including during PMS.[18] The best way to keep your gut microbiome in healthy balance is with high quality spore probiotics and prebiotics. Spore probiotics arrive in the gut 100% alive and ready to work. They quickly crowd out pathogens so a wide variety of beneficial bacteria can flourish. Prebiotics nourish beneficial bacteria, allowing them to grow and multiply.
Getting proactive and taking these steps, especially keeping your gut microbiome in balance, will help smooth the days leading up to your period.
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Balance Your Gut to Calm PMS with the Core Health Bundle
A balanced gut microbiome sets the stage for a healthy estrobolome and a steadier cycle. And balance is everything when you’re dealing with PMS.
Keeping your gut in good balance calls for proactive maintenance. That takes a steady diet of spore probiotics and prebiotics. They supply what your microbiome needs to welcome a diverse population of beneficial bacteria.
That’s exactly what you’ll get with Just Thrive Probiotic and PREbiotic, the Core Health bundle.
The Core Health bundle includes:
Just Thrive Probiotic, a blend of four spore probiotics proven to work together to support a healthy, well-balanced gut microbiome. These clinically-studied strains include:
- Bacillus subtilis HU58™
- Bacillus indicus HU36™
- Bacillus coagulans
- Bacillus clausii
Just Thrive PREbiotic, a combination of three types of prebiotic fiber proven to nourish only beneficial gut bacteria. When combined with Just Thrive Probiotic, studies show it can more than DOUBLE your population of good bacteria.
And if you’re not quite sure Core Health is right for you… We can help with that.
We’re confident that when you use Core Health as directed, you’ll notice a positive difference.
But if you aren’t completely happy, let us know.
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Sources
- Gudipally PR, Sharma GK. Premenstrual Syndrome. [Updated 2023 Jul 17]. In: StatPearls [Internet]. Treasure Island (FL): StatPearls Publishing; 2025 Jan-. Available from: https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/books/NBK560698/
- Gold EB, Wells C, Rasor MO. The Association of Inflammation with Premenstrual Symptoms. J Womens Health (Larchmt). 2016 Sep;25(9):865-74.
- Nabeh OA. New insights on the impact of gut microbiota on premenstrual disorders. Will probiotics solve this mystery? Life Sci. 2023 May 15;321:121606.
- Takeda T, et al. Characteristics of the gut microbiota in women with premenstrual symptoms: A cross-sectional study. PLoS One. 2022 May 27;17(5):e0268466.
- Siddiqui R, Makhlouf Z, Alharbi AM, Alfahemi H, Khan NA. The Gut Microbiome and Female Health. Biology (Basel). 2022 Nov 21;11(11):1683.
- Potrykus M, Czaja-Stolc S, Stankiewicz M, Kaska Ł, Małgorzewicz S. Intestinal Microbiota as a Contributor to Chronic Inflammation and Its Potential Modifications. Nutrients. 2021 Oct 28;13(11):3839.
- Clapp M, Aurora N, Herrera L, Bhatia M, Wilen E, Wakefield S. Gut microbiota's effect on mental health: The gut-brain axis. Clin Pract. 2017 Sep 15;7(4):987.
- Iancu MA, Profir M, Roşu OA, Ionescu RF, Cretoiu SM, Gaspar BS. Revisiting the Intestinal Microbiome and Its Role in Diarrhea and Constipation. Microorganisms. 2023; 11(9):2177.
- Baker JM, Al-Nakkash L, Herbst-Kralovetz MM. Estrogen-gut microbiome axis: Physiological and clinical implications. Maturitas. 2017 Sep;103:45-53.
- Kumari N, et al. From Gut to Hormones: Unraveling the Role of Gut Microbiota in (Phyto)Estrogen Modulation in Health and Disease. Mol Nutr Food Res. 2024 Mar;68(6):e2300688.
- Ervin SM, Li H, Lim L, Roberts LR, Liang X, Mani S, Redinbo MR. Gut microbial β-glucuronidases reactivate estrogens as components of the estrobolome that reactivate estrogens. J Biol Chem. 2019 Dec 6;294(49):18586-18599.
- Hu S, Ding Q, Zhang W, Kang M, Ma J, Zhao L. Gut microbial beta-glucuronidase: a vital regulator in female estrogen metabolism. Gut Microbes. 2023 Jan-Dec;15(1):2236749. doi: 10.1080/19490976.2023.2236749.
- Sui Y, Wu J, Chen J. The Role of Gut Microbial β-Glucuronidase in Estrogen Reactivation and Breast Cancer. Front Cell Dev Biol. 2021 Aug 12;9:631552.
- Noviyanti NI, Gusriani, Ruqaiyah, Mappaware NA, Ahmad M. The effect of estrogen hormone on premenstrual syndrome (PMS) occurrences in teenage girls at Pesantren Darul Arqam Makassar. Gac Sanit. 2021;35 Suppl 2:S571-S575. doi: 10.1016/j.gaceta.2021.10.103. PMID: 34929904.
- Albert KM, Newhouse PA. Estrogen, Stress, and Depression: Cognitive and Biological Interactions. Annu Rev Clin Psychol. 2019 May 7;15:399-423.
- Oboza P, Ogarek N, Wójtowicz M, Rhaiem TB, Olszanecka-Glinianowicz M, Kocełak P. Relationships between Premenstrual Syndrome (PMS) and Diet Composition, Dietary Patterns and Eating Behaviors. Nutrients. 2024 Jun 17;16(12):1911.
- Ayyub S, Agrawal M, Sharma V, Aravind A. The Effect of Physical Activity on Premenstrual Syndrome: A Systematic Review. Ann Neurosci. 2024 Dec 16:09727531241297012.
- Priyadharshini R, Subhashini R. The role of probiotics in managing premenstrual syndrome: insights into beneficial bacterial strains. Int J Basic Clin Pharmacol. 2025;14(3):418-422. doi:10.18203/2319-2003.ijbcp20251070
