Hormones control almost every system in your body. They are like an orchestra playing, so when one instrument is a little off-key, it affects the whole system. If you feel tired, anxious, or are gaining weight, your hormones may be involved.
In this episode, leading reproductive expert Dr Helen O’Neill explains how hormone health affects fertility, metabolism, and mental health for both men and women.
The core question is simple: if hormones run your body, how much influence do you have over them?
Alongside ZOE’s head nutritionist, Dr Federica Amati, Helen explores the links between hormones and fatigue, anxiety, weight gain, fertility, and metabolic health. The episode covers thyroid health, chronic pain, sperm health, and why gut hormones play a central role in appetite and weight regulation. We also examine why some female-specific conditions remain misunderstood or undiagnosed, and how better data may help change that.
Most importantly, this episode focuses on what you can do to take back control. With emerging science suggesting that diet plays a key role in hormone regulation, you’ll hear how fibre, plant diversity, healthy fats, and key micronutrients support gut hormone production and fertility. You’ll also learn why changes made over three months may meaningfully influence fertility, and why conception is always a shared responsibility.
Help keep your hormones in tune with this guide to the relationship between gut, diet and hormones, produced in partnership with the hormone experts at Hertility.
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Timecodes
00:00 Intro
03:50 One hormone can change everything
09:50 Injecting testosterone can shut this down
12:30 You were born with all the eggs you’ll ever have
15:15 The subtle signs your hormones are off
17:55 The most common thyroid problem no one spots
20:30 ‘Balancing hormones’ — myth or medicine?
23:10 The condition affecting one in 10 women
25:40 Why PCOS impacts weight and mood
28:10 Why women were excluded from medical trials
30:25 The data breakthrough changing women’s health
32:30 The devastating disease that mimics cancer
35:15 It takes nine years to diagnose this
37:00 The symptom doctors often miss
39:15 Your gut is a hormone factory
41:00 As powerful as a drug?
43:00 The ‘gourmet meal’ your hormones love
44:05 The flash of zinc at fertilisation
46:15 A handful of walnuts improved sperm health
48:50 Your sperm affects your child’s future
50:30 The fertility habits that really matter
52:40 The biggest takeaway about hormones and food
📚Books by our ZOE Scientists
The Food For Life Cookbook
Every Body Should Know This by Dr Federica Amati
Food For Life by Prof. Tim Spector
Ferment by Prof. Tim Spector
Free resources from ZOE
The Hormone Harmony Guide: Tuning Your Body’s Internal Orchestra
Eating for Better Brain Health: Your brain-gut blueprint
How to eat in 2026 - Discover ZOE’s 8 nutrition principles for long-term health
Live Healthier: Top 10 Tips From ZOE Science & Nutrition
Gut Guide - For a Healthier Microbiome in Weeks
Better Breakfast Guide
Mentioned in today's episode
Hertility Health
Effect of Walnuts on Male Fertility, Current Developments in Nutrition (2019)
Sperm health and risk of nausea and vomiting during pregnancy, Nature (2023)
Interplay of Gut Microbiota in Polycystic Ovarian Syndrome, Pharmaceuticals (2023)
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Episode transcripts are available here.
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