I see this in my patients over and over again, where it's, you know, we're conditioned as children,

a lot of times in our culture to be hyper-capable, uber responsible, able to take care of ourselves

and suppress our own needs, and we show up for everybody else all the time, for a really long time.

And when we get to midlife and we have all these things piling up, you know, health conditions,

psychological stress, work stress, aging parents, relationship stress, all of this stuff

piles up. And then our hormones make us less resilient. And it's just like, it's like the straw

that breaks the camels back.

And I think it's also an invitation to heal and become more of who we are.

Hello, everybody and welcome to another episode of Better with Dr. Stephanie. It's me, your host, Dr. Stephanie Estima. And today we are talking

all about the gut, digestion, and perimenopause, and the menopausal transition. And this is

going to be an episode for you. If you really want to connect all of the dots, so you want to

connect your gut health to maybe you're suspecting some thyroid dysfunction.

Maybe you're noticing that you're having more immune stuff. So maybe like the itchy eyes,

the stuffy nose, you feel like maybe you constantly have a cold. This is the conversation

that is going to tie it all together. My guest today is Dr. Christine Marin. She is a medical doctor and a functional

medicine certified practitioner. And she specializes in women's health, hormones, and gut health.

Dr. Marin helps women navigate perimenopause and optimize their well-being by addressing the

root causes of their symptoms through personalized holistic approaches.

So what are some of the things that we talk about today?

We talk about the difference in gut diversity between men and women.

We talk about how gut dysbiosis and leaky gut increases in perimenopause as we begin to lose many hormones, but in particular, estradiol.

We talk about alcohol sensitivity changing,

...