The gut and hormones have always been treated as two completely separate conversations in medicine, and that disconnect is quietly behind some of the most frustrating symptoms women experience in midlife. From bloating and brain fog to autoimmune conditions and weight that will not move, the answers have been there all along, hiding in a connection nobody thought to make.

We dive deeper into this in the Extend Podcast with Cynthia Thurlow. We also talk about why perimenopause is the ultimate litmus test of how well you have been living your life, why every woman deserves a conversation about hormone replacement therapy regardless of her age, and why the gut microbiome may be the missing link behind why so many women start HRT and still do not feel better.

Cynthia Thurlow is a nurse practitioner, internationally recognized speaker, and host of the Everyday Wellness podcast, with over 25 years of experience in health and wellness specializing in perimenopause, menopause, and intermittent fasting. Her second TEDx talk on intermittent fasting has garnered over 15 million views, and she has been featured on ABC, FOX 5, KTLA, Medium, Entrepreneur, and The Megyn Kelly Show. She is the author of Intermittent Fasting Transformation and the upcoming book The Menopause Gut, one of the most important and underexplored conversations in women's health today.

What's Discussed:

(4:27) What the gut microbiome actually is and why perimenopause changes everything about how it functions.

(9:40) How accumulated childhood stress and trauma ages the ovaries faster and pushes women into menopause earlier.

(20:05) How to assess where you stand with your nervous system and the simplest ways to start improving it.

(31:59) What the estrobolome is and why it may be the missing link behind every perimenopausal symptom you cannot explain.

(37:32) How to reinvigorate your estrobolome and get your gut back to actually processing hormones correctly.

(43:44) Why every woman deserves a conversation about hormone replacement therapy and what most practitioners are still getting wrong.

(49:59) The truth about oral contraceptives that a generation of women was never told.

(56:52) The first two or three things every woman should do if she knows her gut is off.

Listen to this episode of the Extend Podcast and walk away finally understanding why everything you have been doing for your hormones, your weight, your energy, and your symptoms has not been working, and what the one conversation nobody is having, could change about all of it.

Thank You to Our Sponsors:

Momentous: Head to livemomentous.com/fiber and use code DRSHAH for up to 35% off your first order.

Learn more about Dr. Darshan Shah:

Website: drshah.com

Clinic: next-health.com

Instagram: darshanshahmd

Find out more about Cynthia Thurlow:

Website: www.cynthiathurlow.com/

Instagram: @cynthia_thurlow

Facebook: www.facebook.com/cynthiathurlowofficial

Podcast: www.cynthiathurlow.com/podcast

LinkedIn: www.linkedin.com/in/cynthia-thurlow

YouTube Channel: www.youtube.com/@CynthiaThurlow

Substack: https://cynthiathurlownp.substack.com/

Twitter/X: https://x.com/_CynthiaThurlow

Pre-order: The Menopause Gut: www.penguinrandomhouse.com/the-menopause-gut-by-cynthia-thurlow

165. Cynthia Thurlow: The Menopause Gut - Why Healing Your Hormones Starts With Healing Your Gut

Extend Podcast with Darshan Shah, MD

165. Cynthia Thurlow: The Menopause Gut - Why Healing Your Hormones Starts With Healing Your Gut