21 October 2023 , 07:00
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Dame Kelly Holmes has revealed she struggled to do a single push up as she shared the affects of the menopause.
The double Olympic champion suffered with body pains and a total shift in her sleep pattern. She has admitted to not even knowing she was going through the menopause, and was slightly "in denial". At first, Kelly noticed a change in her sleep pattern as she was struggling to get to sleep or would wake up in the middle of the night. She then found she was having "extreme body pains".
Speaking to The Mirror, Kelly explained: "My wrists and everything was so sore. I wasn't able to do fitness that I would normally do. At one stage, I couldn't do a press up which is ridiculous for me." Opening up on how the menopause affected her mental and physical self, she added: "[It affected] everything really. Body pains, not being able to train, energy levels.
Kelly was unable to do a single push up during the menopause (Ken McKay/ITV/REX/Shutterstock)
She is a double Olympic gold medalist holder (Getty Images)"The body pain affected me training in the gym and I am used to training in the gym. I could not do one press up and then I knew I had an issue." For Kelly, the physical pains affected her emotionally as well. She said: "I wasn't training how I'd like to train. I was feeling weak and I don't like feeling weak. My emotions were going, my body ached and the pains were hurting and I didn't like it. That then affects my emotional wellbeing because I like to keep active."
Luckily for Kelly, she is now feeling stronger again and even recently completed a grueling Spartan Race. The former athlete wanted to share her own experiences of the menopause in an effort to help other women. "Everybody talked about hot sweats and hot flushes as their main thing, then it was all about energy levels and mood swings," Kelly explained about what she thought of the menopause. "I didn't get the hot sweats, which is why I was like 'okay this is a breeze'.
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"One of the things people always said was about your periods stopping, which was kind of my own knowledge that if you had stopped your periods for a year then you had likely gone through it. People have different experiences, every woman is different. There was not enough knowledge. No one was really given the signs."
She added: "There's a lot of issues that women are facing, and with this on top it is like 'god, give us a break!'." Kelly struggled with her sleeping patterns during the menopause and while being perimenopausal, meaning she would wake up at 3am or was not able to get to sleep. She admitted: "I would be thinking out it so much, trying to get back to sleep, that it would wind me up." The former athlete has since found ways to ensure she can get a good nights sleep and wants to share them with other women.
"I was always into sleep sprays anyway, and I was also into having a warm bath before I go to bed, I do that a lot more now," she said. "Because that regulates the temperature as well, apparently, even if you have hot flushes having a hot bath regulates your temperature." Kelly has also created a calming space in her bedroom that includes thick curtains, low lighting and cooling products such as gel pillows, cooling sheets and fans.
Kelly has teamed up with Dunelm to share tips for perimenopausal or menopausal women, which can be found here.