Microbiome - Endocrine Crosstalk in Women's Health and Disease: Mechanisms and Therapeutic Opportunities

The human microbiome is an integral component of physiological homeostasis, influencing metabolism, immunity, reproduction, and endocrine function. In women, microbial communities inhabiting the gastrointestinal and urogenital tracts are particularly dynamic and regulated by hormones across the lifespan. Conversely, these microbial communities can influence hormone metabolism, bioavailability, and signaling. This bidirectional relationship creates a complex “microbiome–endocrine axis” that regulates women's health.Sex hormones, particularly estrogens, progesterone, and androgens, play fundamental roles in regulating female physiology and have profound effects on microbial community structure and function. Additionally, hormonal changes occurring during puberty, the menstrual cycle, pregnancy, postpartum transition, and menopause can alter the composition and metabolic activity of microbial communities. However, microbiome–endocrine interactions extend considerably beyond the reproductive tract. The gut microbiome participates in the metabolism of estrogens and other steroid hormones. These interactions may have broad implications for disorders that disproportionately affect women. Alterations in microbial community structure and function have been associated with conditions including polyendocrine metabolic ovarian syndrome (PMOS, formerly known as polycystic ovary syndrome/PCOS), endometriosis, infertility, bacterial vaginosis, recurrent urinary tract infection, gestational metabolic disorders, obesity, metabolic syndrome, and hormone-dependent malignancies. Emerging evidence also suggests that microbiome–endocrine interactions may contribute to bone, cardiovascular, and neuroendocrine health during aging and menopause, highlighting the need for deeper mechanistic insight into host–microbe endocrine regulation across the female lifespan.Understanding microbiome endocrine crosstalk creates opportunities for developing new diagnostic, preventive, and therapeutic strategies for women's health. Microbial signatures, metabolites, and host–microbial biomarkers could potentially complement conventional endocrine and clinical measurements for disease risk stratification, diagnosis, and therapeutics.Therapeutically, manipulation of microbial communities through diet, prebiotics, probiotics, biotherapeutics, microbial metabolites, targeted antimicrobials, or microbiome transplantation approaches represents an expanding area of investigation. Conversely, endocrine interventions may potentially be optimized by considering their effects on microbial ecosystems. An important future direction will therefore be the development of precision approaches that account for both endocrine regulation and microbiome composition. The aim of this Research Topic to bring together interdisciplinary studies investigating the bidirectional interactions between microbial communities and endocrine regulation in women's health and disease, with particular emphasis on biological mechanisms and translational opportunities. In this Research Topic, we welcome Original Research, Reviews, Systematic Reviews, Mini Reviews, Perspectives, and other relevant article types accepted by Frontiers in Endocrinology – Reproduction. In alignment with section guidelines, manuscripts should maintain a clear focus on reproductive physiology and endocrinology. Purely bibliometric studies or secondary database analyses (e.g., NHANES or Mendelian randomization) lacking independent experimental validation are outside the scope of this section.We welcome submissions addressing themes including, but not limited to:• Hormonal regulation of the female microbiome: Bidirectional interactions between endocrine factors and the gut, vaginal, urinary, and reproductive tract microbiomes across puberty, menstrual cycles, pregnancy, postpartum, and menopause • Microbial modulation of endocrine and metabolic signaling: Microbial regulation of estrogen, progesterone, androgen, and other hormonal pathways, steroid hormone metabolism, and microbiome-derived metabolites influencing endocrine and metabolic homeostasis. • Microbiome–endocrine crosstalk in women's health and disease: Roles of microbiome–hormone interactions in PMOS, endometriosis, infertility, bacterial vaginosis, UTI/recurrent UTI, metabolic disorders, hormone-responsive cancers, and menopause-associated conditions. • Biomarkers and microbiome-targeted therapeutic opportunities: Microbial and endocrine biomarkers for disease prediction, diagnosis, patient stratification, and treatment response, alongside precision nutrition, probiotics, prebiotics, live biotherapeutics, microbial metabolites, and integrated microbiome–hormone therapeutic strategies. Topic editors: Lokesh Kumar, Ashish Jain Source: https://www.frontiersin.org/research-topics/86246/microbiome---endocrine-crosstalk-in-womens-health-and-disease-mechanisms-and-therapeutic-opportunities