All Episodes

August 11, 2025 29 mins

Can maintaining good gut health actually balance your hormones? You bet it can! Join me, Susie Garden, in this enlightening episode of the Ageless and Awesome podcast as we unravel the mysteries of the estrobolome and its crucial role in oestrogen modulation. Learn how the enzyme beta-glucuronidase, produced by your gut microbiome, not only helps metabolise and remove toxins but also it's link with chronic constipation, autoimmune diseases, and even certain cancers. This episode emphasises why understanding and optimising your gut health is essential, especially for women facing hormone imbalances during perimenopause and menopause.

Discover the actionable steps to achieve optimal gut health and hormone balance. I’ll share insights on tracking your stool patterns and how they can signal underlying gut issues that may be affecting your mood, periods and hormone balance. Hear an inspiring client story that underscores the importance of open communication with healthcare providers and the power of informed self-care. We’ll delve into the significance of beta-glucuronidase levels and how to support your estrobolome and gut microbiome with practical advice you can apply immediately.

But we don’t stop there. We also explore the nutritional aspect of gut health, emphasising the need to address inflammation and heal conditions like leaky gut. Learn about the benefits of prebiotics like PHGG, and why hydration, fibre, and a diet rich in fresh, colourful fruits and vegetables are vital. I'll also touch on how farming practices, food freshness, and stress management can impact your gut and hormone health. Tune in for a wealth of information that’s not just about feeling good, but living ageless and awesome!

Send me a text!

Are you a woman feeling stressed, flat and experiencing the challenges of perimenopause?

It’s time to reclaim your youthful energy, radiance and self-assurance (and your ideal weight).

I’m here to help with my proven method.

Here's how I can support you -


1. Hit your health and wellbeing goals this year, balance your hormones and lose weight with your own personalised protocol, based on your body's biochemistry. Sounds awesome right!! Book a free 30 minute Peri Weight Loss Assessment with me so we can discuss your health and wellbeing goals and also see how I might be able to support you. ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠Book your call here. ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠

2. Follow me on Instagram and Facebook - ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠@the.perimenopause.path

Mark as Played
Transcript

Episode Transcript

Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:00):
Hi, I'm Susie Garden and this is the Ageless and
Awesome podcast.
I'm an age-defying naturopathand clinical nutritionist and
I'm here to bust myths aroundwomen's health and aging so that
you can be ageless and awesomein your 40s, 50s and beyond.
The Ageless and Awesome podcastis dedicated to helping women

(00:24):
through perimenopause andmenopause with great health, a
positive mindset and outrageousconfidence.
Hit, subscribe or follow nowand let's get started.
Hello, gorgeous one, andwelcome to this week's episode
of the Ageless and Awesomepodcast.
And this week I'm recommencingmy little series on gut health

(00:48):
and hormones and I think I gotkind of a little bit waylaid and
distracted.
I started this gut healthseries at the beginning of June,
so about three, four weeks ago,and yeah, I got a little bit
sidetracked.
But now I am back on theme thisweek, and last time I did speak

(01:12):
about skin health, therelationship between gut health
and skin health, andparticularly the estrobolone.
So the estrobolone as areminder or if you haven't
listened to that episode yet,the estrobolone is just part of
your gut microbiome.
So it is, you know, part ofthat collection of bacteria,
viruses, yeasts etc.

(01:34):
In the gut and it's capable ofmetabolizing and it helps also
modulate the body's estrogen,modulate the body's estrogen,
and so it can impact estrogenlevels, which can impact our
hormone balance, our weight, ourlibido, our mood, our skin, all
of the things.

(01:54):
So in the last episode on this,I did focus very much on skin
health, and today I'm getting alittle bit more detailed in how
the estrobolome modulateshormones and in particular, I
want to talk about a enzymecalled beta-glucuronidase.

(02:15):
You might glaze over when Imentioned something like that,
but it's actually a reallyimportant enzyme, and enzymes
just help with chemicalreactions in the body.
We have many, many differentenzymes, and beta-glucuronidase
is just one of them, and theestrobolone actually produces

(02:37):
beta-glucuronidase and I'll tellyou a little bit about the
function of it.
I'll tell you a little bitabout the function of it.
Essentially, it is an enzymethat's involved with metabolism
and removal of things like drugs, so that's prescription drugs
and other drugs, hormones andtoxins.

(02:59):
We get exposed to toxins everysingle day just with living
normal life in Western countries, and so we have many mechanisms
in our body detoxificationmechanisms, and the liver is
probably one of the main ones,but the liver and the gut
obviously very closely relatedbecause they are linked and,

(03:22):
yeah, if the liver is notworking that well it's not
producing, popping rather thewaste products into the gut.
And if the gut's not workingproperly, it's not removing
those waste productsparticularly well.
So it's really important, whenwe're thinking about removal of
waste and toxins, that we've gotthe gut working well, because

(03:44):
it's not just about, oh, wehaven't emptied the gut properly
, so the toxins are building up.
It does impact other mechanismsthat are in place in the body
to remove them, including thisenzyme called beta-glucuronidase
, because what that does?
The estrobolone actuallymodulates the production of

(04:05):
beta-glucuronidase.
So if we're not, if we don'thave good gut health and we
don't have a really nourishedestrobolone, that will impact
this other enzyme down the trackand that can impact, as I said,
the the metabolism and removalof drugs, hormones and toxins
from our bodies.
And what is, I guess, reallyimportant with this is that when

(04:28):
we have increasedbeta-glucuronidase, you get a
buildup of toxic substances inthe body.
And also this increase inbeta-glucuronidase has been
linked to an increased risk of afew medical conditions.
So autoimmune conditions is one, certain cancers is another and

(04:55):
other inflammatory disorders.
So it's really important thatwe are looking after our gut
health, because there are somany little tiny chemicals in
our body that are influenced andwhere I've tended to see a
significant increase inbeta-glucuronidase is in people

(05:19):
that have chronic constipation.
Chronic constipation and whenI've done gut microbiome testing
in my clients, I will alwaystest beta-glucuronidase.
It's pretty much standard, Ithink, with most of the
companies that do those tests,but I think it's a really
important one, particularly forwomen with a history of certain

(05:43):
cancers in their family.
I think it's really important tohave a look at this number and
a really important goal then, ormanagement goal, is to reduce
that beta-glucuronidase.
And we have ways of doing that,and a lot of it is really just

(06:04):
focused on improving gut healthand manipulating, I guess, is a
word managing, manipulating thegut microbiome.
So let's backtrack a little bitand talk about the kind of
symptoms that I'm on the watchfor when I'm assessing someone's
gut health.
So if I'm looking at a clientright from the beginning, from

(06:27):
the initial consultation, whenwe're looking at gut health and
assessing hormone health, thenI'm really looking at what are
the mechanisms going on in thegut, what are the symptoms, I
should say, going on in the gutthat might be indicating that
the mechanisms aren't workingvery well?
So the first one that I willalways ask and if you're a
client of mine, you know this isbloating how often you move

(06:52):
your bowels and what is yourBristol stool chart number?
And if you've never looked at aBristol stool chart, just Google
it.
It's publicly available and itis essentially a poo chart.
You may see a couple of funnyversions of it.
There's someone that's done awhole like a photograph of a

(07:15):
Bristol stool chart in chocolateand I know that sounds a bit
weird.
If you know what a Bristolchart is, this will make a lot
of sense to you.
It's pretty funny.
So, essentially, the Bristolstool chart has a lot of
illustrations of poo on itdifferent types of poo and it
has a description and it has anumber next to it and I use this

(07:36):
chart every single day that I'min my online clinic asking my
clients what is their Bristolnumber, because this can change
over time.
Asking my clients what is theirBristol number because this can
change over time.
Obviously, when we're looking atelimination patterns,
elimination is kind of themedical word for pooing and
weeing, but when we're lookingat elimination patterns, we

(07:56):
really want to look at not somuch well, sorry, as well as how
often are you moving yourbowels it's.
What does that stool actuallylook like?
And that gives us a really goodindication of whether you're
getting a good elimination oftoxins from the body and if you
are suffering from constipation.

(08:17):
So that can be defined as notmoving the bowels every day.
Or sometimes people are movingthe bowels every day, but it
might be on the Bristol chart aone or a two, which means that
those still can be quite, youknow, hard.
It can be very small, pelletscan be difficult to eliminate
out of the body.
All of those things might be alot of flatulence involved with

(08:41):
it as well and bloating.
There may be pain and that kindof pattern of constipation is
possibly going to influence yourhormone status.
And that's why it's reallyimportant to really have a good
knowledge of your own body.
And if you are going to go andsee a healthcare practitioner

(09:03):
about your gut health, it'sreally helpful for them to
understand your stool pattern.
So if you can kind of maybetrack it over a week or two and
understand you know what foodsmight cause issues with your
elimination and how often you'removing your bowels and what
your Bristol stool chart numbermight be, that can be really
helpful.
But yeah, if there is thatconstipation?

(09:27):
I would?
I mean, I'll be honest, Ihaven't looked up the research
on it, but I would almostguarantee that your levels of
beta-glucuronidase are probablya little higher than we want
them to be and that can lead tohormone imbalance as well as
those other issues that Imentioned.
But, generally speaking, whenpeople are coming to me, it's

(09:49):
because they've got symptoms ofhormone imbalance.
So maybe their mood is reallyerratic, maybe they've got PMS,
maybe they've got endometriosisor infertility.
Obesity Obviously, I'm seeing alot of clients that are
carrying extra weight and, yeah,this is something that you may
not have really connected thatyour gut health is influencing

(10:11):
your hormone balance.
Now, obviously, when I'm seeingwomen with perimenopause and
postmenopause, we're reallywanting to optimize gut health,
because that is going todramatically improve your
experience of perimenopause andmenopause, because we really
want to get rid of the oldestrogen that's not serving us
anymore.
We want to bring that estrogenand progesterone balance back as

(10:35):
much as we can.
I mean, you know, this is anatural process where our sorry
perimenopause is a naturalprocess where our progesterone
is going to really dive and ourestrogen is going to fluctuate
and surge and drop, and surgeand drop.
So there are things we can doto help support that, but we're

(10:56):
not working miracles where we'rereally forcing up progesterone
to bring it back into balance.
It's really just about doingthe best that we can to optimize
the health of your body so thatyour body can really help
manage itself in this time ofchange and transition.
And I think the more you knowabout what's going on in your

(11:20):
body, the better equipped youare to have conversations with
your GP about it or your otherhealthcare professionals and
also to make good choices foryourself.
One of the things and I'm kindof digressing a little bit, I
think it's important One of thethings that I've really noticed
is how many women I speak tothat have pretty significant um

(11:43):
of menstrual symptoms and thiscan be within the context of
perimenopause and menopause orpremenopause and they've never
actually discussed it with theirdoctor.
You know, I had a clientrecently who said she was
changing a tampon on her heavydays every half an hour and I
said, well, has your doctor doneany investigations?

(12:04):
And she just looked at me andsaid, well, I haven't really
talked to him about it and it'slike okay, you know, and I get
it in a GP consultation.
They're very short and you knowif you don't really know what's
normal and what's not normal,it's really hard to know what to
bring up.
But you know this lady also haspretty significant gut issues

(12:26):
and has had for over 20 years,and so you know there's no doubt
in my mind that there is a linkthere.
But also, if the period flow isthat heavy, because this is a
super term on every half an hour, then there's could be other
underlying causes like endo orPCOS or there could be something
else.
So you know you really want tobe across what is, I guess,

(12:50):
normal and what isn't, andthat's why you know you have
such an abundance of freeinformation, with podcasts, for
example.
I would always say please makesure you're listening and
getting your information fromqualified people.
We all know there are a largenumber of people saying, stating

(13:12):
that they are experts, and whenyou actually look at their
about page, there will be noqualifications listed.
There will be, perhaps, theirstory of their own lived
experience and I'm notdownplaying that.
However, I'm a big believer,with my background, in
conventional medicine as well asthe natural approach.
I'm a big believer in lookingat a really balanced approach

(13:36):
with both research and intuitive, or if that's what you want to
call it I'm not sure if that'squite the right word but, yeah,
looking at research, but alsolooking at what actually works,
and not just works for oneperson, what works for many,

(13:57):
many people.
And that's why working with apractitioner can really help,
because we have experience inworking with many, many, many
people over many, many, manyyears, and that is what really
gives you, as a practitioner,insight and the ability to
manage interesting, differentmedical conditions and client

(14:19):
presentations.
I'm not really going off topichere, but bear with me.
Yeah, because I just do thinkso many women are putting up
with symptoms and, um, quitedistressing symptoms, actually
life, um, impacting symptoms,because they don't actually
realize that this is not normaland that this is something that

(14:40):
can be supported, helped,reduced, minimized, with often
just a few little tweaksHonestly, often that's all it
takes.
And swinging back into this guthealth and this estrobolome
support, I'm going to list outnow some of the things that you

(15:01):
can do to help with supportingthe estrobolome and the gut
microbiome, but a lot of this isyou'll have heard it from me
before because it's not rocketscience.
It's two concepts I guess Ilike to say.
One is preserving what you'vegot and two is supporting very

(15:26):
specifically the symptoms thatyou have.
And what I mean by this, byboth of these things, is what we
know Smashing your microbiomewith huge amounts of random
probiotics is not a great gameplan.
What I always do with my clientsinitially is I want to clean up

(15:49):
what's going on in the gutfirst, so that does not involve
probiotics.
So I want to clean up what'sgoing on.
I want to make sure we've gotgood elimination patterns.
So that might be increasinghydration, because we know that
will help with eliminationthrough every detox pathway,
including the kidneys as well asthe gut.

(16:10):
So we want to make surehydration is optimal.
We want to make sure thatbowels are moving as regularly
as makes sense for theindividual person and we also
want to make sure that the I'mgoing to say the quality of the
elimination is good.
So when we look at a Bristolchart, for example, we're

(16:30):
looking for a three or a four.
So if you want to Google aBristol chart and have a look,
but it's basically a smoothstool that's easy to pass,
anything that's beyond that,that's more like super soft or,
you know, diarrhea-like.
That's not what we're lookingfor Even though, yes, that is
going to eliminate your toxins,you're also going to be damaging

(16:53):
your microbiome.
You're going to be having a lotof inflammation in the
intestines as well, and ifyou're regularly getting, like
mucus on the toilet paper, bloodon the toilet paper, that is a
good sign that you've got someinflammation that needs to be
brought under control.
So the first thing we want todo is really clean up the gut.
So we want to soothe the gutmembrane.
If there is leaky gut, we wantto heal the gut so that those

(17:17):
tight junctions are nicelytogether.
And yeah, I'm not going to gofurther into an explanation of
that.
Essentially, you could Googlethat or, if you want me to do a
podcast on it, I will.
I think I have done last yearor the year before I've done a
number of podcasts on leaky gut,so I'm not so much going to go

(17:40):
into that today.
But we want to make sure thatthe gut is soothed, it's healed,
that we want to work on reallybuilding your own good gut
bacteria.
So we feed them usingprebiotics and we do that with
food.
We can do that with somesupplements.
I really, really love as aprebiotic something called PHGG.

(18:02):
It's a very clean fiber.
It's really easy to take, it'sclear, when you put it into
water, tastes like water andit's very, very clean and ideal
even if you have microbiomeissues, such as something called
SIBO that you can use PHGG withSIBO even if you haven't

(18:24):
treated it.
So, yeah, we want to make surethat we've got good hydration,
good fiber, that we are thenlooking at what medical
conditions are present in yourbody.
Are there some specificprobiotics that have research
that supports using them?

(18:45):
And there is so much researchout now and the research is
still continuing to build andbuild, which is awesome.
So, yeah, I would reallyrecommend, if you're having
those huge broad spectrumprobiotics with like 10 billion
bacteria in them, please stopyou, just please.

(19:05):
You're probably doing more harmthan good.
You're much better off lookingsort of a bit more upstream and
looking at supporting hydrationand fiber.
Also some good nutrition.
So lots of greens, lots ofbrightly colored fresh fruits,
veggies.
I was looking at some infocoming out.

(19:28):
There's a big or was I thinkit's just finished international
microbiome conference on inEurope and some of the really
interesting stuff coming out ofthat was about plants and how
they all have their ownmicrobiomes and there might be a
microbiome in the root that'sdifferent to the microbiome in
the seed, that's different tothe microbiome in the fruit or

(19:48):
in the leaf, which is reallyquite fascinating, and because
they all have different purposes, and that their diversity is
actually being impacted by poorfarming practices that we tend
to have in the West, and thatthe longer you store these
fruits and veggies as well, themicrobiome deteriorates, as you
would expect, and that impactsour microbiome, because we're

(20:11):
eating them and we want to makesure we're getting the best kind
of food to support ourmicrobiome.
So the take-home message wasthat you know, having fruits and
veggies that are as close tothe time they got out of the
soil is best.
So buying your fruits andveggies from farmer's markets

(20:33):
makes a huge difference and youknow we've stored food for
decades.
Like I remember my uncle had aapple farm in Stanthorpe and I
remember going into the coldroom and this would have been.
I can't remember exactly, itwould have been like late 70s,
early 80s and because I onlyhave a vague memory of it, but I

(20:55):
remember just being amazed byit, because you'd go into the
cold room on a hot day and justthe pallets and pallets of
apples was just amazing.
We'd just go in there and eatapples and it was great, but you
know they would stay there fornine months so that you know
they would harvest when theapples were ready and then store
them and then they would go towhichever supply they were going

(21:17):
to.
So the apple that you're eatingmight be eight months old or
nine months old, it's not goingto have nearly the antioxidant
levels, it's not going to havethe same microbiome magnificence
as if you just picked it out ofthe ground or off the tree.
Rather, the same day and Iremember going to the um

(21:37):
Northeast street markets inBrisbane, which is a um organic
market, and having lettuce andthe, and the lady that I that
was running the store said thiscame out of the ground this
morning and she said taste thisand, oh my God, the.
The difference between havinglettuce from the shops and
having something that hadliterally been in the ground
that morning was like night andday in terms of taste, in terms

(22:00):
of texture, in vitality, how itmade me feel.
So that is a really importantpart of supporting your
microbiome is the freshness ofthe food that you're eating and
the color, because we know thatbrightly colored and richly
colored fruits and veggies havemore antioxidants, have more

(22:21):
polyphenols.
They're awesome for supportingyour gut health.
So let me just reflect a littlebit.
We've talked about hydration,we've talked about fiber, we've
talked about brightly coloredfruits and veggies.
Stress management will always bea part of any protocol to
improve gut health, because themore stressed we are, the slower

(22:43):
our gut will move.
Generally speaking, for somepeople their gut will move super
fast, particularly if you haveIBS IBS and that slowness in the
gut will help.
As I said, people that haveelevated beta-glucuronidase tend
to have chronic constipation,so when those feces kind of sit

(23:11):
around in the gut, we tend tosee elevated levels of this
enzyme.
So, and remember that enzyme'sresponsible for some of your
hormone metabolism and wedefinitely see period disruption
, mood disruption, pms, etcetera, in people that have
elevated beta-glucuronidase intheir stools when we test them.
We know that for sure.
So, yeah, that is really,really important.

(23:34):
You're looking after your guthealth and because your
estrobolone will be looked after, if you're looking after your
gut health generally, there'snothing really specific we need
to do for the estrobolonespecifically.
It's just looking after yourgut health.
What else do I want to sayabout that.
So stress, brightly coloredfoods, lots of antioxidants,

(23:58):
hydration, fiber Notice Ihaven't said have probiotics.
Now, probiotics can make peoplefeel good, and especially for
the short term.
And again, as I said, Ihesitate to recommend taking
probiotics from a general pointof view because there are so

(24:19):
many specific uses for specificstrains of probiotics.
So, for example, for peoplewith chronic constipation, there
are specific strains that willreally help with that, rather
than taking big, big doses ofbroad spectrum probiotics.

(24:39):
And I can't tell you how manytimes I've done stool microbiome
testing on a client that has,say, for example, severe
bloating and we'll often see areal, perhaps even a depletion
of something like theirlactobacillus and maybe an

(25:00):
elevation of theirbifidobacterium.
And so if you're putting morebifidobacterium into your gut
through your probiotics use, ifyou're just using huge doses of
random probiotics, you're justcontributing to the problem.
You're not actually helpingreduce that bifido and
increasing the lacto, and that'swhat you want to be doing by

(25:22):
using specific probiotics.
That's really a podcast onitself.
I'm going to jot that down as apossible future podcast, but
I'm really curious to see if youhave any questions about that
or if that raises any points ofdiscussion, because I would love
to know.
I'd love to get more of an ideaof the things that you need.
So I think I'm going to kind ofstop there.

(25:43):
I know I've gone off on acouple of tangents today.
I hope that's okay.
I'm just I've kind of wrote afew notes of things I wanted to
cover and then the rest of thetime I've just kind of been just
saying what's coming into mymind, but I hope that's helpful.
I'm so passionate about womenhaving information, women having
some knowledge that will reallyhelp them to get healthier.

(26:05):
You have not, because I get sofrustrated when I see women
coming in that that reallyshould not have been going
decades with the problems thatthey've got that have been very
debilitating for them.
So, yeah, anywho, I think I'mgoing to sign off now before I
get up on another soapbox.
So I hope this has been helpful.
If any questions have come upfrom this episode that you feel

(26:27):
like I haven't been quite clearenough on, I would love to hear
from you.
You can message me atsuzygardenwellness on Instagram
or you can email me hello atsuzygardencom, if you feel like
you like to work with me.
It's the beginning of July whenI'm recording this and you know
, my books are open, so feelfree to book in for a

(26:49):
pre-screening call to see how Imight help you.
The link is in the show notes.
Have an awesome day and rest ofthe week.
I will see you on Thursday withQ&A.
Thanks so much for joining metoday on the Ageless and Awesome
podcast.
If you liked today's episode,please make sure you click the
little plus button if you're onApple Podcasts, or the follow

(27:10):
button if you're on Spotify, sothat you get each new episode
delivered to you every week.
If you like free stuff, thenhead to the show notes and click
the link to receive my freeRadiant Reset Hormone Detox
Guide for Perimenopausal Women.
Or, if you'd like to continuethe discussion, head over to
Instagram and DM me atSusieGardenWellness.

(27:30):
I'd love to connect with you.
Advertise With Us

Popular Podcasts

Stuff You Should Know
New Heights with Jason & Travis Kelce

New Heights with Jason & Travis Kelce

Football’s funniest family duo — Jason Kelce of the Philadelphia Eagles and Travis Kelce of the Kansas City Chiefs — team up to provide next-level access to life in the league as it unfolds. The two brothers and Super Bowl champions drop weekly insights about the weekly slate of games and share their INSIDE perspectives on trending NFL news and sports headlines. They also endlessly rag on each other as brothers do, chat the latest in pop culture and welcome some very popular and well-known friends to chat with them. Check out new episodes every Wednesday. Follow New Heights on the Wondery App, YouTube or wherever you get your podcasts. You can listen to new episodes early and ad-free, and get exclusive content on Wondery+. Join Wondery+ in the Wondery App, Apple Podcasts or Spotify. And join our new membership for a unique fan experience by going to the New Heights YouTube channel now!

24/7 News: The Latest

24/7 News: The Latest

The latest news in 4 minutes updated every hour, every day.

Music, radio and podcasts, all free. Listen online or download the iHeart App.

Connect

© 2025 iHeartMedia, Inc.