A former bodybuilder, Adele Johnston, faces early perimenopause symptoms possibly exacerbated by her extreme training, now managing them with hormone therapy and refusing to risk their return.
Adele Johnston used to be a bodybuilder, following strict diets and workout routines that made her feel hungry and tired all the time.
As a Scottish bodybuilding champ, she experienced hair loss, bleeding gums, heart palpitations, itchy skin, and swollen genitals. After numerous tests, doctors found out she was in the early stages of perimenopause, which usually starts around age 46 but Adele was only in her early 30s.
Adele admitted she pushed her body too hard with extreme diets and workouts, going against her better judgment. She was always hungry and never felt satisfied.
Standing at 5ft 8ins and weighing only 8 stones 3lbs during her bodybuilding days, Adele was much lighter than she is now.
Adele wondered if her bodybuilding contributed to her early perimenopause but doctors couldn’t confirm it due to lack of research. Dr. Heather Currie, a gynecologist, suggested that extreme bodybuilding might have disrupted Adele’s menstrual cycle.
Nowadays, Adele has stopped bodybuilding and is undergoing hormone replacement therapy (HRT) and uses a Mirena coil to ease her perimenopausal symptoms. She runs a menopause business and training academy and feels much better than before, unwilling to stop her medication to check if her cycle has normalized.
She experienced troubling symptoms during perimenopause like heart palpitations, sleeplessness, cold sweats, itchiness, vulva pain, hair loss, abdominal bloating, and bleeding gums, which were traumatic for her. But with stable hormones, she’s not ready to risk going back to those symptoms.
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