EF#28: Research into the Estrobolome & Endometriosis with Lara Thieme, PhD

Lara Thieme is my guest today, she is a postdoctoral researcher from Germany. We met doing Nicole Jardim's Fix Your Period Apprenticeship a couple of years ago. Back then I didn't quite get the link with the estrobolome, a "specific sub-microbiome in the gut and Endometrosis. Lara was talking about how she planned to research the connection between this and Endometriosis in the future and was attending some really cool research seminars about the estrobolome and microbiome. Lara has Endometriosis herself, so her personal story has really driven her interest to merge her research specialism and Endo.

In this episode we talk about:

• Lara's personal story with Endo on how it has influenced her research career
• How difficult it is to conduct research studies on women with Endo, especially during Covid
• Infertility rate increases
• Toxic burden in the environment
• Correlation vs causation in research
• Need and difficulty of evidence-based research into Endometriosis
• Why good gut health is so important in women with Endo
• Connection between inflammation and the gut
• How your gut army is being challenged to "new unknown enemies"
• Immune system relationship with the gut
• Hygiene hypothesis and the importance of "dirt"
• Good and bad bacteria within the gut connected to Endo
• Biofilms and antibiotic resistance
• What the "estrobolome" is and the importance for Endo and fertility
• Gut and reproductive microbiome
• Ways to improve your microbiome

As always there is lots more information about this episode on my website, i.e. what exactly was discussed, mentioned resources, related podcast episodes and blogs: https://www.endofertilityspecialist.com/endo-fertility-podcast/

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