Dame Kelly Holmes has said the symptoms of perimenopause are “killing” her, with lethargy, brain fog, night sweats and body aches making her feel she is no longer in tune with her body.
The double Olympic gold-winning athlete said the hormonal changes that characterise the transitional period before the menopause had left her feeling “out of control all the time” and in constant pain.
Holmes, who is 53, told the Times: “Perimenopause is killing me at the moment. As much as I’m in denial, it definitely has had an effect on my body. It’s not a nice feeling, especially as someone who has been in tune with their body.
“When there are a lot of changes in someone’s life, that has a huge effect physically and mentally. And I’m at this point where I’ve got this other thing that happens, the big old bloody perimenopause, and I’m like, seriously?”
She said she had started getting night sweats last week, and had been feeling more irritable. “You feel like you’re not yourself,” she said.
Holmes is the latest celebrity to openly discuss her menopausal symptoms, a topic was considered taboo as little as six years ago. Since a “breakthrough” interview between the TV host Lorraine Kelly and a doctor, however, growing numbers of women have spoken out to raise awareness of the symptoms – though this has prompted some doctors to worry that people are becoming excessively worried about them.
The perimenopause usually starts between 45 and 55. It lasts for an average of four years but sometimes as long as a decade. For some women, symptoms are mild, but for others they are debilitating. Many women use hormone replacement therapy (HRT) patches to alleviate symptoms.
Despite large numbers of women in the workforce experiencing perimenopausal and menopausal symptoms, they are often unrecognised or mistreated, and few employers offer women support, resulting in an estimated 900,000 dropping out of the workforce.
Recent proposals to change UK legislation to make menopause a protected characteristic, which would safeguard women’s employment rights, were partly rejected by the government over concerns the move would discriminate against men. Ministers also rebuffed a menopause leave pilot.
Other celebrities to have spoken out about the perimenopause recently include Drew Barrymore, 48, who interrupted an interview to say she was having hot flushes and has said she wants to challenge the stigma that it makes you “some dusty, old, dry thing”; and Martine McCutcheon, 46, who said it felt like “losing your damn mind” and that she had been surprised to learn that “crippling anxiety” was a symptom.
The presenter Carol Vorderman, now 61, described last year how she had experienced suicidal thoughts during the perimenopause, which were alleviated with hormone therapy, and in 2018 Gwyneth Paltrow, then aged 46, shared a video explaining her symptoms in an effort to give the perimenopause “a rebranding”.
In her Times interview, Holmes said she had used weight training to make her feel better, which she said was “critical” for increasing women’s metabolisms during the period and preventing muscle loss.
Noting that some women get to a point where they can no longer lift their children or shopping bags, she said: “When you get perimenopause you feel weak, you feel like everything is going, so weight training is a brilliant tool to combat its worst impacts.”
She said that despite finding the symptoms demotivating, she was still prioritising exercise.
