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It’s no secret that I have struggled with vaginal atrophy during the roughest part of perimenopause. For me I struggled with urinary incontinence, which I knew had to be hormonally driven, because my symptoms fluctuated around my intermittent cycle, plus I had never had any incontinence issues prior to perimenopause, even after having 2 kids. It happens to women post cancer treatments, who have been forced into menopause, early-menopause and natural menopause. And it wasn’t until she self-diagnosed herself using Doctor Google (something I do not endorse, but I know we have all done it! )  and told her GP what the problem was, that she started to get the correct treatment.

Starting as an aerobics instructor in the 80’s to her current role, she realized that she had to break away from the pretense and pretend that permeates this industry. At 55 years old she is one of the strongest women I know, her instagram posts leave us all wide-eyed and gobsmacked at her strength and grace of movement. She is a self-professed recovering Type-A (a little like myself) so has had to learn how pull back from the ball-busting workouts that left her injured and broken, and rethink how she exercised. She wants people to bring back play into their workouts, knowing that if you find something that makes you happy then you are likely to stick with it.

Vasomotor symptoms affect up to 80% of women during menopause, and whilst the exact reason for them happening still seems to elude researchers, there is a lot of data to support the “thermoregulatory zone” is narrowed for menopausal women. It appears that fluctuations in core body temperature are more pronounced in postmenopausal women, and while we know that adding back estrogen can re-widen the thermoregulatory zone, making those hot flashes subside, we also know that other factors play a major part in this. Dr Rosanne Woods was curious about the impact on cardio vs. strength training on the severity of these symptoms, and in particular the amount of lean body mass compared to body fat percentage. They found that if women maintained and build lean body mass, from resistance training versus moderate cardio, they would be 70% less likely to experience hot flashes.

She is a health and medicine journalist who is the author of the fantastic book, Perimenopower. Frustrated as many women are through perimenopause about the lack of factual and easy to find information, she used her extensive background in scientific research to create the book. We discuss Katarina’s journey into writing, Perimenopower and how she created the ultimate guide for you. Read about sleep yoga, natural supplements, diet, exercise and, not least, the hormone estrogen – everything to help you get the right preconditions to discover your female superpower when the hormones swing – your perimenopower.