Your hormone symptoms are unpredictable. Your mood is all over the place. Some months are fine, some months are a disaster — and nobody has been able to tell you why.

You've tried the supplements. Maybe even hormone replacement. And something is still off.

Here's what even functional medicine and a holistic approach are still missing: it might not be a hormone problem at all. It might be a hormone processing problem. And the place to look isn't your ovaries. Your hormonal balance starts in your gut.

In this episode I'm breaking down the estrobolome (the part of your microbiome that controls how much estrogen is actually circulating in your body at any given time). When it's off, everything feels off. And it's way more common than anyone is telling you.

What we get into:

• Why your body can produce the right amount of estrogen and still have too much of it cycling through your system
• The enzyme that pulls estrogen off the elimination track and sends it right back through your body (and how to get it back on track)
• Why this shows up as unpredictable cycles, mood swings, bloating, and weight that won't move ...and keeps getting mistaken for a hormone imbalance
• The everyday habits sabotaging your estrobolome and easy fixes that start to turn it around
• What to do before ever going to hormone replacement

Your gut is actively deciding whether your used estrogen gets eliminated or recycled back into your body.

This often overlooked piece has everything to do with how you feel and how your hormones are functioning.

Next week: already on hormone replacement and it's still not working — or making things worse? That's exactly where we're going.

Your Body Finally Got Better. So Why Don't You Feel Fine? With Best-Selling Author Amy Kurtz

You fought for answers. You finally started to heal. And everyone — including you — assumed that was the hard part. But what if your nervous system never got the memo? Amy Kurtz — patient advocate and bestselling author of Kicking Sick and her new book But You Look Fine — is back, and this conversation goes somewhere most health podcasts never do: what happens after the illness. Because for a lot of women, that's where a different kind of struggle begins. Amy spent years seeing 30+ doctors before getting answers. And when she finally started healing physically, she was blindsided by something no one warned her about — debilitating anxiety, hypervigilance, and a nervous system that had been in survival mode so long it didn't know how to stand down. She calls it Medical Trauma Brain. And if you've ever thought "why can't I just relax?" — this episode will finally give it a name. What we get into:

What Medical Trauma Brain actually is — and why it shows up even after your labs look normal The "shadowlands" — that in-between place where you look fine but internally you're still bracing for impact Why your nervous system doesn't automatically catch up just because your body improves The grief of lost time, missed seasons, and a life that didn't go as planned The fawn response in healthcare — and why it feels so hard to advocate for yourself What it actually looks like to start teaching your body it's safe again

The part that stays with you: you can spend years fighting to get better, finally get there, and still feel trapped. That's not failure. It's just that no one told you there's an aftermath to surviving something this hard. If this is you, there's a way through — and the steps are more doable than you'd think. 🎙️ Find Amy at amykurtz.com

🔗 Resources & Links (As an Amazon Associate I earn a small commission from qualifying purchases, at no extra cost to you):

• Amy Kurtz's new book: But You Look Fine https://amykurtz.com/
• But You Look Fine: Trapped in the Hell Between Sick and Well and How to Break Free by Amy Kurtz https://amzn.to/4upNgUY
• Amy Kurtz's first book: Kicking Sick https://amzn.to/4fZVRtp

✨Join the conversation:

Share your thoughts with us on social media or in the comments!

🎙 Subscribe, Share & Review:

If you loved this episode, please take a moment to subscribe and leave a review on Apple Podcasts! By subscribing and reviewing, you help us (more than you know) to reach more people who are looking for great health information. Thanks for tuning in to Pretty Well! See you next week!

Contact Lisa:

Website: www.lisasmithwellness.com

IG: https://www.instagram.com/prettywell_podcast/

Disclaimer:

Nothing in this podcast is to be taken as medical advice, please take informed accountability and speak to your provider before making changes to your health routine.

The primary purpose of The Pretty Well Podcast being to educate. This content is for informational and educational purposes only. It is not intended to provide medical advice nor to take the place of such

advice or treatment from a personal physician. By listening to this content, you agree to consult your own physician or qualified health professional regarding specific health questions. Neither Lisa Smith, The Pretty Well Podcast, nor any guest takes responsibility for possible health consequences of any person or persons following the information in this educational content. All listeners of this content, especially those who are pregnant or taking prescription or over-the-counter medications, should consult their physicians before beginning any nutrition, supplement, or lifestyle program. The Pretty Well Podcast is for private non-commercial use and our guests do not necessarily reflect any agency, organization, or company that they work for. In addition, opinions of interview guests do not necessarily reflect the opinions of Lisa Smith and/or The Pretty Well Podcast. This content is not guaranteed to be correct, complete, or up to date.

Bloated and Inflamed? Exciting New Research in Gut Health

You've run the protocols. Worked with practitioners. Spent real money on testing and supplements. And you're better — but not all the way there. This episode is about that gap. Oscar Coetzee from Designs for Health joins me to talk about what's missing from the gut health conversation — and why the model most practitioners are still using doesn't fully explain why so many women keep cycling through solutions without ever fully getting to the other side. What if the problem isn't that you haven't been aggressive enough? What if it's that the approach itself is missing something? What we get into:

Why the standard gut protocol looks right on paper but stalls in real life What newer microbiome research is starting to suggest that changes everything Why aggressive approaches can sometimes work against the very system they're trying to fix The in-between space where so many women get stuck — not sick enough for a diagnosis, not well enough to feel fine The shift from controlling your gut to creating conditions where it starts regulating itself What this actually looks like with food and real life — without living in a perfectly controlled environment

The reframe that changes everything: what if the goal isn't another protocol — it's building an ecosystem that can handle real life without constantly needing one?

And if you want a simple way to stay consistent with what actually matters day to day, the Morning Mindset Journal is linked in the show notes. It helps you stay grounded without turning your life into yet another protocol. ❤️

🔗 Resources & Links: The Morning Mindset Journal https://lisasmithwellness.com/the-morning-mindset-journal

✨Join the conversation: Share your thoughts with us on social media or in the comments!

🎙 Subscribe, Share & Review: If you loved this episode, please take a moment to subscribe and leave a review on Apple Podcasts! Your support helps us reach more people who need these insights.

Thanks for tuning in to Pretty Well! See you next week! Contact Lisa: Website: www.lisasmithwellness.com IG: https://www.instagram.com/prettywell_podcast/

Disclaimer: Nothing in this podcast is to be taken as medical advice, please take informed accountability and speak to your provider before making changes to your health routine. The primary purpose of The Pretty Well Podcast being to educate. This content is for informational and educational purposes only. It is not intended to provide medical advice nor to take the place of such advice or treatment from a personal physician. By listening to this content, you agree to consult your own physician or qualified health professional regarding specific health questions. Neither Lisa Smith, The Pretty Well Podcast, nor any guest takes responsibility for possible health consequences of any person or persons following the information in this educational content. All listeners of this content, especially those who are pregnant or taking prescription or over-the-counter medications, should consult their physicians before beginning any nutrition, supplement, or lifestyle program. The Pretty Well Podcast is for private non-commercial use and our guests do not necessarily reflect any agency, organization, or company that they work for. In addition, opinions of interview guests do not necessarily reflect the opinions of Lisa Smith and/or The Pretty Well Podcast. This content is not guaranteed to be correct, complete, or up to date.