CELEBRITY INTERVIEW
MY LIFE IN HEALTH
Olympian Jess Ennis-Hill, 37, speaks to Joanna Ebsworth about how she’s changed the way she approaches exercise, and how she’s helping women navigate perimenopause.
I never used to think about menopause because it seemed so far away, and I just didn’t want to know.
I’d not fully understood about perimenopause, which is that pre-phase before you get into menopause. The development of the perimenopause programme in my Jennis app came from listening to our customers saying, “we’re heading into this new phase where our cycles are changing massively, and we don’t have those distinctive four phases. How can you cater for us?” And that’s why we created a product to serve those women.
When you hit puberty, your hormones increase rapidly and erratically so you have all these hormonal changes and mood swings.
But perimenopause is the decrease of those hormones in an erratic and often rapid way. Hearing about it from the women we’ve spoken to who are going through perimenopause makes me realise that it can be challenging and scary if you don’t know what’s going on. So, the whole thing with understanding your hormones and being able to track them is that you start to notice changes and symptoms, and the way you’re feeling on a day-to-day basis, and you can pick up that you’re going into this phase – or if you’re in it – and start to address what to do next.
Although I haven’t experienced any perimenopause symptoms yet, I feel much better prepared now.
That’s thanks to the research we did for the app and I’ve learnt so much over the past few years. It’s made me realise that more women would feel so much more confident and prepared for these life phases if they just had those key bits of information and advice on what to do. I don’t want women to feel terrified about loads of awful symptoms they might get; it’s more about recognising that your hormones are changing but there are ways you can help yourself feel better.
A lot of women have said they train or exercise in the same way they did in their 20s and 30s.
So, if they’re a keen runner, they’ll just keep on running, or if they’re into cycling, they’ll keep cycling because that’s what’s worked for them in the past. But when you go into perimenopause and then menopause, that style of cardio exercise – where you’re stressing your body and increasing your cortisol – can be quite damaging. Being able to do more strength training during this period is key in preventing injury as well as maintaining bone density.
We experience a big drop in oestrogen during perimenopause.
This can lead to a big increase in fat storage, as well as a decline
