What About the Gut? What Your Bloating, Mood, and Fatigue Are Really Telling You
You have had your labs run. Your hormones came back normal. Your ultrasound looked fine. And yet, something still feels off.
Maybe it is the bloating that shows up every afternoon. The constipation you have stopped mentioning at appointments because no one seems to connect it to anything else. The mood swings, the brain fog, the energy crash that coffee no longer fixes. Maybe you are trying to conceive, newly pregnant and second guessing every bite of food, months postpartum and wondering if you will ever feel like yourself again, or noticing your body changing in ways your regular provider waves off as normal aging.
Here is what most providers will not tell you: your gut may be at the center of all of it.
At Wild Moon Midwifery, we do not treat your digestion as separate from your fertility, your pregnancy, your postpartum recovery, or your hormones. We treat women across Wilmington and Leland, NC as whole systems, because that is what the body actually is. And the research increasingly backs that up.
It was Hippocrates, the father of medicine, who first taught that digestion, diet, and stomach balance were central to overall health and to preventing disease. We now know that 70 to 80 percent of the immune system lives in the gut. About 90 percent of the body's serotonin and roughly 50 percent of its dopamine are manufactured there too, which makes the gut a serious driver of mood, not a bystander to it. At a time when an estimated 70 percent of what fills grocery store shelves barely qualifies as food, protecting the gut is not optional. It is foundational.
So what actually is the gut microbiome?
Your digestive tract is home to trillions of organisms. Bacteria, viruses, fungi, and protozoa all live in your intestines, and they are working constantly, digesting food, producing vitamins, extracting nutrients, processing waste, and supporting your immune system. A healthy microbiome depends on biodiversity, meaning a wide range of different bacteria and microbes doing their jobs. Problems start when helpful bacteria drop off and harmful microbes take over, a state called gut dysbiosis.
Why should I actually care about my gut?
Bloating. Constipation. Diarrhea. Mood swings, depression, anxiety. Trouble focusing. That afternoon crash that hits no matter how much you slept. Chronic fatigue that never fully lifts. All of these can trace back to what is happening in your gut, and none of them are something you just have to live with.
Should I test my gut microbiome?
The honest answer is maybe. There are plenty of at home stool test kits on the market, and they are not all created equal. Doctor's Data ran a study sending the exact same stool sample to seven different labs and got wildly different results back, including inconsistent results within the same lab. Working with a provider who understands gut testing and knows which labs actually produce reproducible, trustworthy results matters more than which kit you buy.
But you don't necessarily need to test right away. If you've tried a basic elimination diet for one to three months and your symptoms have not budged, if you have already been through a treatment protocol without the results you wanted, or if you simply want the clearest possible picture, testing your gut microbiome is a reasonable next step.
What if I am not ready to pay for testing yet?
Start with an elimination diet. Gluten, dairy, alcohol, and processed foods are the most common triggers of gut dysbiosis. Cut them out for at least four weeks and pay attention to how you feel. Then reintroduce them one at a time to see what, if anything, brings your symptoms back. Adding a quality probiotic alongside this process can help restore beneficial bacteria while you are healing. If your symptoms stick around after that, testing becomes a much clearer conversation.
What about parasite cleanses?
It is unlikely that someone living in the United States is carrying a persistent parasite, but the concern is a common one. If that is on your mind, know that many gut microbiome testing kits screen for parasites as part of the standard panel, so it is not something you need to chase down separately.
Where to go from here
If any of this sounds like your last twelve months, or your last twelve years, you do not need to keep guessing on your own. A well-woman visit at Wild Moon Midwifery is where we start connecting these dots together, your gut, your hormones, your cycle, your energy, whatever season of life you are in. Serving women throughout Wilmington and Leland, NC, we look at the whole picture instead of running through a fifteen minute checklist.
Book a well-woman appointment with Wild Moon Midwifery and let's find out what your gut has been trying to tell you.
About the Author Casey Hartell, DNP, CNM, WHNP, is the founder of Wild Moon Midwifery, providing home birth and women's health care throughout Leland, Wilmington, and throughout Brunswick and New Hanover Counties, NC. A former U.S. Navy nurse who deployed aboard the USNS Comfort, Casey completed her doctoral training at Georgetown University, with a concentration in Women's Health and Midwifery, and brings four years of hands-on birth experience — including two years at a freestanding birth center — to every family she serves.
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