A lot to DIGEST

We’ve been hearing about the benefits of probiotics for a few years now, but recently an influx of probiotics, marketed specifically towards women, have hit the shelves. The question that you might be asking is, do women really need different probiotics to men? Turns out, the answer is not so clear cut.

Professor Georgina Hold, from the Microbiome Research Centre in Sydney, explains that while it is known that men and women have differences in their microbiomes (microbiomes are the microorganisms living in a specific environment such as the gut or vagina), there isn’t a lot of documented research looking at these differences.

“It’s one of those areas where more exploration is needed,” she says.

But gender isn’t the only factor affecting differences in microbiome.

“Ethnicity, geography and