The Stressed Gut
Your digestion seems unpredictable and changes with stress, overwhelm, or poor sleep.
Free 2-Minute Midlife Gut Quiz
Your Gut Changed in Midlife. Find Out What It May Be Trying to Tell You.
Bloating by the end of the day? Constipation that suddenly feels harder to manage? Foods you used to eat without a second thought now leaving you uncomfortable?
Take this free 2-minute quiz to discover your dominant gut pattern—and get a clearer idea of what to focus on first.
7 quick questions · Personalized result · Free
For women navigating digestive changes in perimenopause and menopause.
As Featured In & Trusted By Leading Publications
Does Your Digestion Feel Like It's Playing by New Rules?
Maybe you've been eating well, drinking more water, taking supplements, cutting out foods, or doing everything you're “supposed” to do…
but your gut still feels unpredictable.
You may recognize yourself here:
- Your pants fit comfortably in the morning but feel completely different by dinner.
- Constipation and bloating have become frustratingly normal.
- Foods you've eaten for years suddenly seem harder to tolerate.
- Stress, poor sleep, or a busy week seems to throw your digestion off.
- You've tried diets, supplements, or protocols that helped temporarily—only for your symptoms to return.
- You're spending way too much mental energy wondering what you should or shouldn't eat.
When digestion changes in perimenopause and menopause, doing more isn't always the answer.
Sometimes, the more useful first step is understanding the pattern you're dealing with.
Meet Your Midlife Gut
What's Your Dominant Gut Pattern?
Your answers will help identify which of these four patterns sounds most like what you're experiencing right now.
The Sluggish Gut
Constipation, fullness, and bloating that builds throughout the day are taking center stage.
The Reactive Gut
More foods seem to trigger discomfort, leaving you wondering what you can safely eat.
The Boomerang Gut
You've tried diets, supplements, protocols, or other approaches. Things improve…then the symptoms come right back.
You may recognize pieces of more than one pattern—and that's completely normal.
The quiz helps identify the pattern showing up most strongly in your answers right now.
In Just 2 Minutes, You'll Get More Clarity On…
What's showing up
Identify the dominant pattern reflected in the digestive symptoms and experiences you report.
Why your past efforts may not have given you lasting relief
See why simply trying another diet, supplement, or restriction may not address the whole picture.
Where to focus first
Get personalized educational insights designed to help you better understand your gut instead of continuing to guess.
No complicated questionnaire.
No judgment about what you're eating.
Just 7 simple questions about what you're experiencing right now.
Why Our Approach Is Different
You Don't Need Another Random Thing to Try.
You need a clearer starting point.
We're Ava + Meg, Registered Dietitians and the team behind Balanced Gut Coaching.
We've worked with women who feel like they're doing all the right things—eating well, exercising, trying to take care of themselves—only to find that their digestion suddenly doesn't respond the way it used to.
And we've experienced unpredictable guts ourselves.
That's one of the reasons we developed our Foundation–Fix–Freedom Framework: an approach designed to help women better understand what's driving their symptoms, address what needs attention, and build the confidence and tools to get back to living their lives.
Because the goal of gut health shouldn't be becoming really good at avoiding food.
It should be understanding your body well enough that your gut doesn't get to run the show.
Meet Your Dietitians
We're Ava + Meg.
Registered Dietitians. Gut-health educators. And women who've dealt with unpredictable digestion ourselves.
We know how frustrating it is when your body stops responding the way it used to.
Between us, we've experienced our own digestive challenges, worked with women navigating gut symptoms, and reached the stage of life where perimenopause made the conversation even more personal.
That's part of why we created Balanced Gut Coaching and our Foundation–Fix–Freedom Framework.
We wanted women to have something more useful than another random list of foods to avoid or supplements to try.
Our goal is to help you better understand what's happening, identify where it makes sense to start, and build the confidence and tools to spend less of your life thinking about your gut.
The goal isn't a perfect gut. It's having the understanding and tools to get back to living your life.
The Balanced Gut Approach
Why Doing More Isn't Always the Answer
When you've been uncomfortable for a while, it's easy to keep adding things.
Another supplement.
Another food rule.
Another protocol.
Another attempt to “start over.”
But sometimes the better question isn't:
“What else should I try?”
It's:
“What deserves attention first?”
That's the thinking behind the Foundation–Fix–Freedom Framework.
FOUNDATION
Start with the foundational factors that may be influencing the bigger picture rather than automatically jumping to another quick fix.
FIX
When appropriate, dig deeper and use more targeted strategies based on the individual's needs and bigger picture.
FREEDOM
Build the understanding, confidence, and tools to spend less time managing your gut and more time living your life.
Your quiz result isn't a treatment plan.
It's a first step toward understanding which pattern is showing up most strongly for you.
Real Women. Real Experiences.
Less Guessing. More Confidence in What Your Body Needs.
When your digestion changes in midlife, it can be exhausting to keep sorting through conflicting advice on your own.
Here's what women have shared about their experiences working with Ava + Meg.
Showing 1–3 of 7
I FINALLY FEEL IN CONTROL OF MY HEALTH
“Before working with Meg, I was constantly overwhelmed by diet trends and conflicting advice. Nothing seemed to work long-term.” Meg taught me how to reconnect with my body, eat intuitively, and build habits that last. Now, I feel more confident, calm, and in control than ever before. My health feels like something I nurture, not battle.
MY GI STRESS WENT AWAY!
“I was afraid to fuel my body for long runs because of GI distress. I did my own research but only became overwhelmed and stuck in unhealthy cycles, convinced I could only eat certain foods.” After working with Meg, my GI distress went away! She showed me I wasn't eating enough to fuel myself, introduced me to new foods, and I actually took a half hour off my marathon time. Today, I have a better outlook and I'm more open-minded about what I eat.”
AVA HAS BEEN AN AMAZING SUPPORT AND COACH.
She has extensive experience to draw on and has been a thoughtful and caring guide in my healing. I have been supported physically, mentally and emotionally throughout my journey. From the physical perspective we have worked on a plan of eating and timing that includes foods I enjoy (Ava offering substitutes for the foods that give me trouble including gluten, high sugar, fat, eggs and nightshades). We have eliminated and added foods as we go. Ava has also been a tremendous support when I've gotten off track and am feeling negatively. She has helped reframe my journey and gotten me back on track. I'm so appreciative. Ava has also educated me on how food can affect my mood and brain fog. Based on her suggestions I have adopted mindful practices, better hydration, supplements and an exercise routine (with a lot of self-forgiveness when I fall short of my goals). I would highly recommend Ava to anyone who is looking for counseling and guidance with nutrition, gut healing/health, and a different relationship with food and their body. Ava is professional, highly proficient in her knowledge of nutrition, and has the experience and skill to help her clients get their body operating at its most optimal. Along with her experience Ava deeply cares about her clients and their success.
Individual experiences vary. Testimonials reflect individual client experiences and do not guarantee specific results.
Start with Clarity
You Don't Need to Figure Out Your Gut Before Taking the Quiz.
You don't need another spreadsheet of foods.
You don't need to remember every supplement you've ever tried.
And you don't need to know exactly why your digestion changed.
Just answer 7 simple questions about what you're experiencing right now.
In about 2 minutes, you'll discover which of the four Midlife Gut Patterns shows up most strongly in your answers.
Free · 7 questions · About 2 minutes
Your result is educational and is not a medical diagnosis.
Questions?