The Six Systems & Why They Matter
When you completed the Uterine Health Audit, you were probably expecting something about oestrogen. Too much of it, not enough progesterone, well... that is the story most medical websites give you, and if you’ve spent any time researching fibroids (you probably have), it’s likely the story you’ve been given too. It’s not wrong exactly, but its also very incomplete. And that incompleteness is the reason so many women do everything right but still find themselves no better off or their symptoms just get worse.
Fibroids grow in a particular environment. An environment influenced by how six key systems in your body have been communicating, compensating and responding to pressure over months or even years before a single fibroid was ever detected, and your score reflects the current state of that environment. It shows where strain has been accumulating, where your body has been working harder than it should, and where the conditions that allowed your fibroids to grow are still active. Understanding these conditions is not optional. It is the missing piece that changes everything about what you do next.
This is why fibroids are so difficult (not impossible) to deal with naturally. They grow in an environment that is influenced by your liver, gut, adrenals, metabolic health, exposure to environmental stressors, and even the way you relate to your body and identity as a woman. When one system is under strain, the others step in to compensate. When several systems are under strain, your body starts speaking through symptoms, and it explains why just taking random herbs and supplements doesn’t work.
Your score reflects this interconnectedness. It shows where strain is accumulating, where your body is working harder than it should, where you are doing really well, and what system your symptoms may be hiding in. The goal is not to try and fix one area in isolation. Your job is to understand the whole ecosystem that allowed your fibroids to grow long before they were discovered.
Standard medical care focuses on the fibroid itself: its size, location, impact on your uterus and symptoms. It rarely (if ever) explores the conditions that allowed them to grow in the first place. That’s where I bridge the gap. I am giving you a wider, more accurate lens, by providing insight and a language for what your body has been trying to communicate, because that is what symptoms are.
My role is to help you make sense of it all, to translate your score into a story about how these systems interact, and to help you understand what your body may need next. You don’t have to figure it out alone. You simply need a framework that honours the complexity of your body and gives you a way forward that feels achievable.
The Six Systems
Liver
Fibroids are fuelled primarily by the hormones oestrogen. They are the direct result of a dysregulation environment that has turned your uterus into fertile soil for benign tumours. Your liver is the key to ensuring excess oestrogen, is eliminated via the liver through Phase I and II liver detoxification - a process by which oestrogen is bound then excreted into your gut to leave your body via stools. This means you gut needs to be working efficiently.
Gut
When your digestion is working, you are eliminating well, you are ‘bloat’ free, your microbiome is supporting your hormones and inflammation is regulated. When your gut is under strain, your liver has to work that much harder. Phase II detoxification involves the attachment of compounds that enable oestrogen to be excreted. This sophisticated mechanism breaks down when unhealthy gut flora secretes an enzyme called beta-glucuronidase. This enzyme detaches the compounds you liver attached to the oestrogen, allowing the oestrogen that was supposed to be eliminated in the stools, to be reabsorbed back into your body.
Adrenals
When your adrenals are regulated, your body feels safe enough to digest, detoxify, ovulate, and repair, which means your liver can process oestrogen efficiently and your gut can eliminate it without any issues. But when your adrenals are under strain, cortisol (your stress hormone) slows digestion, which means food sits longer, motility slows, and the microbiome becomes disrupted, the exact conditions that increase beta‑glucuronidase and push oestrogen back into circulation. At the same time, cortisol burdens your liver by diverting resources away from detoxification and toward survival, making Phase I and II clearance less efficient. This is why women under chronic stress often see heavier bleeding, worsening PMS, and fibroids that feel suddenly more reactive. A high adrenal score means your stress physiology is supporting your liver and gut; a low score means your body has been compensating for too long. Further testing to check cortisol levels would be the next step here.
Metabolic
Your metabolic system is the bridge between your adrenals, your gut, and your liver. When your blood sugar is stable and your cells are producing energy efficiently, your adrenals stay regulated, your gut stays calm, and your liver can process hormones without strain. But when your metabolic system is under pressure, whether that is from irregular eating, poor sleep, chronic stress, or inflammation, your blood sugar becomes erratic, and your adrenals respond by releasing cortisol to stabilise you. That cortisol then slows digestion, disrupts the microbiome, and increases the likelihood of oestrogen being reabsorbed rather than eliminated. At the same time, unstable blood sugar forces your liver to prioritise glucose regulation over detoxification, meaning excess oestrogen is more likely to recirculate. A high metabolic score means your energy, blood sugar, and inflammation pathways are supporting your liver and gut; a low score means your body is working harder than it should, and further testing would often reveal insulin resistance, nutrient depletion, or inflammatory markers, all of which feed directly into the hormonal environment that encourages fibroid growth.
Environment
Your environment is the constant backdrop your liver, gut, adrenals, and metabolism are forced to work within. When your environment is clean, low‑toxin, and supportive, your liver has less to process, your gut stays calmer, and your adrenals don’t have to fire as often to compensate. But when your environment is filled with endocrine disruptors such as plastics, fragrances, pesticides, poor air quality, chronic work stress, disrupted sleep, your liver becomes overloaded, your gut becomes reactive, and your adrenals stay switched on. This creates the exact internal climate where inflammation rises, detoxification slows, and oestrogen becomes harder to regulate. A high score means your environment is supporting your physiology; a low score means your body is absorbing more than it can clear. When testing you are looking specifically at liver enzymes, toxins, detoxification phases and liver fat stores.
Identity
Of all six systems, this is the one that is least talked about and most misunderstood. It is also, in my experience, the one that is doing the most damage.
When your identity is aligned, that is... when you have boundaries that you actually stick to, rest that you actually take, and a relationship with your body that isn’t built on pushing through or punishing yourself, your adrenals stay regulated, your metabolism stays steady, and your liver and gut can do their jobs without constant interruption. Your whole body operates like a well oiled machine.
But when your identity has been built on over-functioning, on being the one who holds everything together, on being ‘nice’, saying yes when you really mean no and capable and undemanding while something inside you is screaming, your adrenals are permanently switched on; your blood sugar becomes erratic and your gut and liver are left to manage the physiological fallout of an internal environment that never gets to rest. This is the mechanism. Its biology.
I know this because I lived it for years.
I was the woman who smiled and carried rage home with me. Colleagues told me they found me intimidating. Employers said I had an attitude problem. What I did not understand at the time was that I was running on suppression. I was managing my feelings so relentlessly, holding so much down with such force, that my body was doing the only thing it could do with all that unprocessed energy. It was storing it. And it was storing it in my body.
I ground my teeth so badly at night, I woke myself up with the noise. I was depleted in ways no blood test was picking up. And underneath all of it, I hated myself and my body. I thought it was punishing me. What I didn’t understand yet was that my body was not the problem. My body was keeping record of everything that was happening. The Good. The Bad, and the downright Ugly. It had been keeping score of everything I wouldn’t let myself feel, and my fibroids were part of that score.
This is why so many high-achieving women with fibroids feel like their symptoms come out of nowhere. They don’t. They come from an identity built on performance, coping, on endurance, on being needed and never needing. That ‘external ‘strong’ identity has been driving a stress response your body can no longer compensate for. A high score in this system means your internal world is being supported by how you live. A low score means the way you’ve been showing up in your life has been placing a load on your physiology that no supplement, no diet, and no surgical procedure will ever touch. What you now have is a language for what your body has been trying to tell you. Now breathe and let go of blame and shame.
What your score is really telling you
None of these six systems operates alone. That is the point, but unfortunately, it is completely missed in standard fibroid care… or rather, fibroid management. Your liver needs your gut. Your gut needs your adrenals. Your adrenals need your metabolic system to be stable. Your metabolic system is influenced by your environment. And all of it, every single mechanism, is influenced by the identity you’ve been living inside. Or should we call it your ‘lie-dentity’? I was so used to living inside mine, I didn’t even realise it was there.
This is why your score looks the way it does. A high score (60-100%) tells you that certain systems are holding up well, but it doesn’t mean the environment is fully stable. A lower score (0-59%) tells you where the strain has been accumulating, where your body has been compensating, and where the conditions that encourage fibroid growth may still be active. Neither is a verdict. Both are information.
What your score cannot tell you is everything that is going on right now. You have a snapshot but you don’t have the full picture of what your body is actually going through, how your systems are coping, or where the strain is being held in ways that won’t ever show up on any test or health questionnaire.
So, rather than try and fix everything at once, understand first what your body is actually dealing with. And that understanding doesn’t mean throwing more supplements or herbal remedies into your body. First, understand what is happening, and only then do you make your move.
Valerie-Yamina Bey
Fibroid Specialist