Adele Johnston followed rigorous diets and exercise regimens that left her constantly fatigued and hungry during her bodybuilding career. The double gold bodybuilding champion from Scotland experienced excruciatingly enlarged genitals, bleeding gums, heart palpitations, and hair loss. It was found that these were signs of early perimenopause, the time before a woman’s period ends, after years of scans and uncomfortable tests. It usually begins for women at the age of 46. Adele was a thirty-something mother of two from Fife. “I was physically and mentally taxing my body to the breaking point for years on end. I wasn’t well, and bodybuilding is an extreme activity,” she said to BBC Scotland News.
Adele was two stone less than she is now at 5ft 8ins (1.7m) when she was only 8 stones 3lbs (53kg) as a bodybuilder. “I’ve started to question why I went into an early perimenopause and have asked many doctors if it was due to my bodybuilding and they said ‘It is possible but we don’t have the research,” she stated. Dr. Heather Currie, a gynecologist at NHS Dumfries and Galloway speculated that Adele’s menstrual cycle may have “stalled” as a result of her excessive bodybuilding. “Anything in the extreme you have to question if that is going to have other effects and what I often talk about is everything in moderation,” she stated. “Any excess or underabundance of something will not be beneficial in the long run.
Dr. Currie, a menopause and women’s health advisor to the Scottish government said Adele’s ovaries might “return to normal” if she stopped bodybuilding. “Bodybuilding could have influenced it but she will never know,” she stated. Adele has now stopped bodybuilding, but to aid with her perimenopausal symptoms, she was also prescribed HRT and a Mirena coil, which fully prevents her monthly periods. Now that she is feeling better, the 40-year-old is not ready to stop taking her medicine to see if her cycle has returned.
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