Why Your Gut Might Be Causing PMS, Bloating, and Low Energy

Bloating, PMS, fatigue… most women think these are separate problems. They’re not. They’re usually different signals from the same place: your gut.

I can’t tell you how many clients across Utah, Salt Lake City, Park City, Utah County, Boise, and St. George (loving the SEO keywords here) come to me convinced they have “hormone issues,” when the real starting point is gut health and microbiome balance. When digestion is off, everything downstream feels it: energy, mood, periods, skin, cravings. Your body isn’t being dramatic, it’s being communicative.

Your gut does far more than digest food. It regulates hormone metabolism, inflammation levels, nutrient absorption (aka your energy), immune activity, and even brain chemistry. So when there’s gut inflammation, leaky gut, or disrupted healthy digestion, the ripple effect shows up as bloating that worsens through the day, PMS that feels like a personality shift, afternoon crashes, brain fog, anxiety, low mood, and sugar cravings. Not random. Not in your head. Just physiology.

Hormones get blamed first, but the gut is often the root. Your gut bacteria help process and eliminate estrogen. When microbiome balance is off, estrogen can recirculate instead of leaving the body, contributing to worse PMS, heavier or more painful periods, breast tenderness, and mood swings. Add leaky gut into the picture — where the intestinal lining becomes more permeable — and your immune system stays activated, driving chronic fatigue, poor sleep, and more inflammation.

Then there are the deeper gut stressors that don’t fix themselves: SIBO (small intestinal bacterial overgrowth), candida overgrowth, H. pylori, parasites, low digestive enzymes, and fiber gaps that affect fiber for gut health. These can interfere with nutrient absorption and keep the system inflamed. This is why chasing the IBS root cause matters more than just managing symptoms. Quick fixes, random probiotics, or aggressive detox for gut health without knowing your terrain can actually backfire.

One client example: a 34-year-old from Utah County came in for bloating relief and brutal PMS. She’d already tried cutting gluten and dairy. Stool testing showed H. pylori, low digestive enzymes, and significant gut inflammation. Once we supported eradication, added digestive enzymes, and worked on microbiome balance, her bloating dropped within weeks and her next two cycles were noticeably lighter with less mood disruption. Same body. Different internal environment.

So how do you support your gut without guessing? Start with information, not restriction. Stool testing can reveal bacterial imbalances, candida overgrowth, parasites, H. pylori, inflammation markers, and how well you’re actually digesting food. From there, support usually includes calming gut inflammation, using targeted digestive enzymes, improving fiber for gut health, and strategic antimicrobial or antifungal support if SIBO or yeast is present. This is precision work — not a random parasite cleanse or trendy detox.

If you’re dealing with bloating, PMS, fatigue, or “mystery” symptoms, it’s worth looking at the gut as the control center, not the side character. Your symptoms are patterns, and patterns have root causes.

If you want help connecting your symptoms to what’s happening internally, book a Free Discovery Call and we’ll map out where your gut health may be influencing your hormones, energy, and digestion.