What is it about?
The human gut microbiome includes bacteria that can influence how hormones are processed in the body. One important function is the recycling of estrogens: instead of being fully excreted, some estrogens can be reactivated by microbes in the gut and reabsorbed into circulation, which may influence circulating estrogen levels and lifetime exposure. In this study, we analyzed publicly available gut microbiome data from 24 human populations across four continents, comparing industrialized and non-industrialized contexts. We found that individuals living in industrialized populations tend to have microbiomes with a greater predicted capacity to recycle estrogens. Because estrogen plays roles in reproductive health and fertility, growth and development, and risk for certain hormone-related conditions, differences in how estrogens are processed could have broad biological relevance. However, it is not yet clear whether increased or decreased estrogen recycling is beneficial or harmful, as this likely depends on individual physiology and context. These findings highlight that features of industrialized lifestyles are associated with functional differences in the gut microbiome related to estrogen recycling capacity. Further research is needed to understand how these differences relate to health outcomes. Our ongoing research focuses on identifying factors that shape these microbial functions and their potential downstream health effects.
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Why is it important?
Our findings suggest that features of industrialized lifestyles may be linked to differences in how the body processes estrogen through the gut microbiome. While previous work has identified the gut microbiome as a contributor to hormone regulation, we show that populations living in industrialized contexts differ in the microbiome’s capacity to recycle estrogens. This is important because estrogen plays central roles in reproductive health and fertility, growth and development, and risk for hormone-related conditions. Together, these results highlight a pathway through which environment and lifestyle are associated with differences in hormone regulation and lifetime estrogen exposure.
Perspectives
What makes this work especially interesting to me is that it connects something as familiar as modern lifestyle to something as fundamental as how our bodies process hormones. The idea that microbes in our gut may influence estrogen levels and lifetime estrogen exposure, and that the degree of this influence differs across populations, is both unexpected and fascinating. It points to a layer of biology that is easy to overlook, but may be quietly influencing key aspects of our human physiology.
Rebecca Brittain
Yale University
Read the Original
This page is a summary of: Industrialization increases the estrogen-recycling capacity of the gut microbiome, Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, April 2026, Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences,
DOI: 10.1073/pnas.2523589123.
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