An imbalanced gut can weaken your immunity, allowing pathogenic yeast and bacteria to proliferate and leading to long-term problems with yeast infections and UTIs. Many women take probiotic supplements or probiotic foods in an effort to get their gut back into balance. Probiotic foods like yogurt contain a decent amount of probiotic bacteria, but they’re not the best way to get those healthy, probiotic bacteria into your gut. Probiotic foods, particularly dairy-based fermented foods like yogurt, tend to contain large amounts of histamine. This histamine is produced by the bacteria in the food. For those of us who are histamine-intolerant, that can cause rashes and poor digestion. Another problem with probiotic foods is that they don’t protect their bacteria against your stomach acid. The vast majority of those probiotic bacteria will likely be killed in the harsh environment of your stomach before they reach your gut, which is where you really need them. With these factors in mind, many women turn to probiotic supplements instead. Probiotic supplements can offer digestive support, improved urinary function, boosted immunity, and protection against yeast infections.[1] There are a huge variety of probiotics available in the market, all with different features and benefits. On this page I have compiled a list of the best probiotics for women. In creating this list, I have examined several important factors.[2] Does the probiotic contain enough bacteria to be effective? Does it contain probiotic strains that are particularly helpful for women’s health? How does it get those bacteria safely past stomach acid and to your gut? These probiotics will help any woman who wishes to improve her overall health. Probiotics have become a go-to supplement for many of us looking to improve our digestion and immunity, so go through this list and find the best one for you!
1. Balance ONE Probiotic
At the top of my list is a probiotic that fits all the criteria for a high quality supplement — the Balance ONE Probiotic. This probiotic contains 12 strains of probiotics and a total of 15 billion CFUs per tablet. The strains include the most beneficial probiotic strains for women, such as Lactobacillus acidophilus and Lactobacillus rhamnosus. There are no unnecessary fillers in this probiotic, and it is free of major allergens like nuts, dairy, eggs, and gluten. The Balance ONE Probiotic is non-GMO and vegan. This probiotic doesn’t require refrigeration, making it perfect for travel or keeping on your desk in the office. It contains strains that are already present in the human gut, and does not contain Soil Based Organisms (SBOs) or yeasts. Those are a lot of good characteristics, but the most important feature of this probiotic is its patented delivery system. The Balance ONE Probiotic uses a patented process known as BIO-tract to compress its probiotic bacteria into time-release tablets. These tablets release their bacteria slowly, over 8-10 hours, meaning that the probiotic strains can survive passage through the acidic conditions of your stomach without being destroyed. Studies have shown that this delivery method gets 15 times more bacteria past stomach acid, compared to regular vegetable capsules.[3] If you’re looking for a quality probiotic to help with digestive, urinary, or vaginal health, Balance ONE is my number one choice. It comes with a two-month supply, so it’s also an economical choice.
2. Garden of Life Once Daily Women’s Probiotic
Garden of Life is another high-quality brand to consider as they tend to make specialized probiotics with specific goals in mind. Their women’s daily probiotic contains 50 billion CFUs and 16 strains. It’s important to note that they use vegetable capsules instead of the more effective time-release tablets, so this might not deliver as many bacteria to your gut as you may think. However, it has a good set of probiotic strains for women and likely to be an effective choice. Their probiotics are gluten-free, dairy-free, and soy-free.
3. Florajen Refrigerated Probiotics for Women
This Florajen probiotic is designed to help women restore their gut flora after taking antibiotics. As you probably know, antibiotics are incredibly disruptive to the gut and can make changes to your gut flora that can last for years.[4] Note that this probiotic is not shelf-stable and requires refrigeration. That means you should buy it from a source that will send it with a refrigeration pack to keep it cool during transit. This product contains three probiotic strains with a wide range of health benefits for digestive support and a stronger immune system.
4. AZO Complete Feminine Balance
AZO’s probiotic is another probiotic designed specially for women’s health. From stress to periods, hygiene, and sex, there are all kinds of things that throw off the vagina’s pH level. This probiotic contains a group of 4 bacteria chosen for their ability to improve vaginal health. There are some concerns over the small number of probiotic strains (only four) and the low overall amount of bacteria in the formulation (five billion CFUs). However, this probiotic is well-liked and has generally good reviews.
5. Wholesome Wellness Raw Probiotics
For women who have a lot of experience taking probiotics and find they need a very large dose, the Raw Probiotics line from Wholesome Wellness is not a bad option. Each of the 30 doses contains 100 billion live cultures and 34 probiotic strains. For newcomers to probiotics, or those with more sensitive guts, the 100 billion CFUs in this probiotic might cause some digestive symptoms at first. These will typically dissipate after a week or two. These probiotics are shelf-stable and do not require refrigeration.
6. RepHresh Pro-B
Vaginal health is important, and probiotics can help.[5] RepHresh is a probiotic that is specifically designed to normalize pH levels in the vagina and reduce the incidence of yeast infections and urinary infections. Yeast infections and UTIs can be a sign that the flora in your gut and your stomach are out of balance.[6] Rebalancing your gut flora can lead to a long-term reduction in yeast infections and UTIs. RepHresh offers 30 capsules in a bottle and is quite expensive. They also use capsules instead of time-release tablets, so they won’t be quite as effective at getting those bacteria to where they need to be. However, they are recommended by some gynecologists and are generally a good brand for vaginal health.
7. Purely Optimal Probiotics
While Purely Optimal provides fewer cultures (60 billion) and strains (10) than others, this product contains prebiotics. Prebiotics serves as “food” for good bacteria. They provide enhanced support for your gut, digestion, and even weight-loss goals. (Learn more about prebiotics here: Probiotics Alone Aren’t Good Enough, You Still Need Prebiotics)
8. Doctor’s Recipes Women’s Probiotics
A relative newcomer to the probiotic scene, Doctor’s Recipes has been producing probiotics since around 2020. Their probiotic capsules have 50 billion cultures and 16 clinically proven strains. They can boost digestion and immunity, improve nutrient absorption, and support vaginal health. Note that these come in delayed-release vegetable capsules, so they will be slightly better at delivering their bacteria to the gut than other probiotic capsules in this list. They are made in the USA and free from all common allergens.
9. Livewell PRO-45 Live Probiotics
Livewell’s PRO-45 is another solid choice for the best probiotics for women. This brand prioritizes gut health while boosting your immune system. It contains prebiotic fiber to post your digestion and help its probiotic bacteria survive their passage to your intestines. Another advantage of Livewell is that it uses delayed-release capsules. While not as effective as the time-release tablets used by the Balance One Probiotic, these delayed-release capsules are a better choice than regular capsules for delivering probiotic bacteria to your gut.
10. Physician’s Choice Women’s Probiotics
Last but not the least, Physician’s Choice contains a mixture of probiotics and prebiotics, just like Purely Optimal. What makes the two different is that the former has cranberry extract. Hence, women can benefit from cranberries without the added sugar and the calories that come with the actual fruit. These probiotics also have 50 billion cultures and six strains in their impressive list of ingredients.
Final Thoughts
As you can tell, some of the best probiotics for women above provide billions of cultures and a good amount of strains. These products will ensure that you’ll start to notice differences in your health after using them for a week. Furthermore, they have been tested many times, so you know that these probiotics are of high quality. You can’t go wrong with picking up any of them.
More On Probiotic Supplements
7 Best Probiotic Supplements (Recommendation and Reviews) 15 Benefits of Probiotics (And How to Find One That Actually Suits You) Top 10 Natural Probiotics for a Healthy Gut and Strong Immunity
Featured photo credit: Daily Nouri via unsplash.com
