At 43, running a business while navigating perimenopause, I watched my gut health fall apart — the bloating, the 3am waking, the mood crashes, the constipation-then-diarrhoea cycle that nobody warned me about. What I discovered changed everything: the connection between declining oestrogen, the gut microbiome, and almost every symptom I was experiencing. This is my honest, research-backed account of how I used probiotics, fermented foods, and targeted dietary changes to rebui