Not pooping daily could be why your hormones and fertility are struggling

Not having a poo daily could be a huge factor in your hormone and fertility journey. 

This is such an overlooked symptom that I see time and time again (and that I personally experienced in my periods of ill health.)

The thing with a poo, is that its literally the removal of waste from your body - indigestible food, excess hormones, toxins, bacteria and much more. 

But if it just sits in the bowel, all of that can recirculate and be reabsorbed in to your system. And here lies the issue.

Not removing excess oestrogen from the system leads you to be more likely to experience oestrogen dominance ( less progesterone in relation) - which shows up as mood issues, anxiety, sore boobs, PMS, painful periods and struggling to conceive to name a few.

We need good relatives amounts of both oestrogen and progesterone to help us feel good, have a pain free period and carry a baby for the first 12 weeks before the placenta takes over.

Toxins and waste products can be reabsorbed too, this puts a heavy burden on our liver- which is already trying to do 500 tasks a day. Imagine someone giving you back the jobs you'd already considered done every single day… you’d end up letting a load of other stuff slide. 

And then on top on the hormonal and waste burden, if the stool sits in our colon too long it can begin to ferment and "bad" bacteria can proliferate in the gut - bloating, IBS, gas, nausea the works. And when our gut is out of balance, we struggle even more to regulate hormones, our egg quality suffers, our periods can become more challenging and our fertility suffers.

And it also starts to affect our mental health…

So, what to do if you've been struggling to go to the toilet?

1. Stop being afraid to go at work - just get over it its not worth your health.

2. Make sure youre drinking enough water for the fibre you are consuming, there is so much in the media about more fibre, but we need to do it slowly whilst increasing water intake. Warm drinks tend to do this more effectively - lemon water or ginger tea for example. 

3. Eat enough. This is more common than youd think, if there isnt enough going in, there isnt enough to come out! Especially if you work out regularly. 

4. Consider fibre intake, my favourite are chia pudding, Kiwi, root veg, apples, berries 

5. Gentle movement, being sedentary for large parts of the day, can mean we are not moving our bodies enough to keep things moving. Try to get up and move anout a little more. 

6. Meal spacing- ideally you’ll have 3 to 4 hours between meals and snacks so that the muscular contractions in the bowl have time to work effectively. We call this the migrating motor complex. 

If this makes no difference then we would look at supplementation and potentially stool testing, especially if its never felt the same since a bout of illness or food poisoning. 

If you’d like to book in a chat to talk about sorting your hormones or improving your fertility then you can do so here.