Seed is the new probiotic backed by Cameron Diaz, Jessica Biel and Karlie Kloss

Keeping your gut healthy can feel like a minefield. You pop a probiotic tablet each morning, gulp down an Activia with breakfast and try to get your fair share of “good” bacteria — even if half of that comes from vast quantities of kimchi smothered on your toast on Sundays.

It sounds healthy (enough) on paper but feels inadequate: your skin is all over the place, you regularly feel bloated and spend half the year crawling from one stomach bug to the next. It hardly feels balanced. 

The best remedy, of course, is to see a GP, but when it comes to probiotics and what to take, a new market-disrupting brand says it has provided an even simpler solution. Thanks to a pioneering collective of scientists, doctors and entrepreneurs called Seed, you can now receive gender-specific gut health supplements tailored for women straight to your door: think anti-inflammatory properties to relieve period cramps, antioxidants to boost skin health, and folate strains to support fertility.

The LA-based, female-founded company is backed by Cameron Diaz, Jessica Biel and Karlie Kloss and has just launched its hero product, the Daily Synbiotic, in the UK. It sold out in the US in less than four months. 

The wonder pill is the result of 35 years of research and the devil is in the detail. With the help of UN probiotic expert Dr Gregor Reid, Seed’s scientists have created a two-in-one pill that combines clinically trialled probiotics with a new class of patented prebiotics. Prebiotics — currently lesser-known in the wider world — are designed to feed the friendly bacteria in your gut, and Seed’s strain is plant-based, sourced from Indian pomegranate and Scandinavian chaga and pine bark. Together with Seed’s probiotic formula, their function is to improve digestion alongside heart, immune system and metabolic health.

The probiotics are in the inner capsule, and the prebiotics are in the outer one. The dose is two capsules at once, daily, ideally on an empty stomach.

The pills are tailored for gender. While the male Daily Synbiotic contains 20 strains of bacteria and aims to boost muscle recovery, the female formula contains 24 strains chosen to  promote skin health, reduce inflammation and boost energy levels. 

This is also the first probiotic on the market that targets the body’s folate production, which plays a crucial role in fertility and pregnancy. 

“We’re thinking about vaginal health and women’s health, and mother and infant health too,” Seed co-founder Ara Katz told Vogue recently. “Things like reinventing infant formula are on our road map.”

She and her team are leading a new movement of gender-specific gut health and others are hot on their heels: a growing number of probiotics are being formulated to address women’s health issues. Ortho Biotic is designed to help relieve period cramps; RepHresh Pro-B and Metagenics UltraFlora aim to maintain vaginal health and protect against bladder infections; and Florastor boasts that it can continue to work even when antibiotics are being taken. 

For pregnancy, MegaFood’s MegaFlora for Baby & Me contains plant-based compounds such as ginger to soothe upset stomachs, while Klaire Labs Target B2 is designed for women who are breastfeeding. It contains the probiotic L fermentum, which can reduce inflammation and symptoms of breast infections.