The Thryve Gut Health program lets you test the bacteria in your gut, and then provides personalized food recommendations and probiotics to improve your quality of life. I was offered the chance to try out their testing for free in exchange for a review. I’d been suspecting certain things were giving me belly issues so I was curious what the results would tell me and signed on to get an at-home test kit.

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The bacteria living in your gut affect aspects of your entire body beyond just digestion- weight loss, mood, energy and autoimmunity are all affected by what you put in your body and how your gut reacts. The way Thryve works is you order the kit, activate it, collect the sample at home and then send it off for testing. This is where the poop comes in. That’s right, you test your poop.

First Collect the Sample

I’ll be honest that the Thryve Gut Health test kit sat on my desk for over a week while I tried to tell myself “Today’s the day…just do it.” Most parents have been up close and personal with poop enough to not be squeamish about wiping and then sticking a little cotton swab in it, but for some reason I kept putting it off. I finally sat the kit in the bathroom where I couldn’t ignore it and just did it. Wipe, swab it, stick swab in container and swirl it around a bit, cap it and mail it off.

If you do the test, I recommend putting EXTRA tape on the shipping box. It comes with the easy peel and seal option, but I left it on the counter overnight and by morning the box had popped open. I can only imagine if I had to call the post office to try and find out where my poop ended up.

Thryve Gut Health Results

In about two weeks you get an e-mail with a link to your dashboard which lists your levels for several types of bacteria and lets you know what ones you need to increase or decrease. It also has a customized food recommendation list and what foods to avoid. Once you get your results, you have the option to add-on a subscription plan for a monthly delivery of customized probiotics for $34.98.

The first thing I did was dive into the food recommendations and started making changes right away. I’d been suspecting for a while that milk may be causing me some belly issues. I’d never had any problems with it before, but it seems as you get older, everything starts affecting you differently. And right there on my “Foods to Avoid” list was everything dairy. So it wasn’t just milk, but all things creamy and cheesy. I cut out most milk things, but I just can’t give up on cheese.

Also on my avoid list was grains…all types of grain and things made with grain. Wonderful delicious things like pasta and pizza. I started thinking I’d rather live with some slight belly discomfort rather than deny myself the joy of eating my favorite things.

Making Dietary Changes and Seeing Results

I can honestly say that this test has made a difference in the way that I eat. I haven’t cut out all grains and dairy, but it has made me cut down and make more conscientious choices when food shopping. Now when I eat, I pay attention to how the food affects me, especially if it is something I should be avoiding.

I also tried adding more of the recommend foods and in the couple weeks that I’ve been making the changes, my belly has been happier. I haven’t noticed any major change in energy or mood, but I have been less bloated and experienced less angry gurgling from my insides.

I found the whole experience pretty enlightening and often refer back to my dashboard to check out different foods. I had several questions about my results and the food list, and their customer service was excellent at responding to all my inquiries. I recently started trying the customized probiotics and am very curious about retesting to see the effects! If you’re curious about what’s living in your gut, CLICK HERE to try THRYVE out for yourself! Also, you can SAVE 10% off your order if you look for their pop-up to sign up for the newsletter.

Just remember to use extra tape on the box 🙂