Olympian Clara Hughes was used to pushing her body. But when menopause hit, her body pushed back
The speed skater and cyclist says her issues with self-image started as a teenager and endured throughout her sports career. But it wasn’t until she entered menopause that she was finally able to begin building a healthy relationship with her body. It also encouraged her to contend with her emotions, leading her to experiment with psychedelics and other drugs, she says.
Menopause led Hughes down a path of self-discovery, which included using psychedelics and other drugs
Althea Manasan · CBC Radio
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The Sunday Magazine25:39Olympian Clara Hughes was used to pushing her body. But when menopause hit, her body pushed back
Olympian Clara Hughes was used to pushing her body in order to compete at the most elite levels of sport. But the onset of perimenopause, and later, menopause, she says, tested her in ways she could not fully comprehend.
“Menopause literally messed me up so bad and turned me so far upside down that I didn't know which way was up and which way was down,” Hughes told The Sunday Magazine’s Piya Chattopadhyay.
The 54-year-old cyclist and speed skater, who retired from sports in 2012, says she dealt with perimenopause — a phase that typically begins in your 40s — for years, experiencing hot flashes, night sweats and mood changes.
On top of that, a debilitating knee injury in 2021 left her unable to walk for months, making the once-top athlete feel like she was a “failure at everything in life.”
Hughes chronicles her “fraught relationship” with her body in her new memoir Learning to Breathe. In it, she says the issues with her self-image started as a teenager and endured throughout her sports career. It wasn’t until she entered menopause that she was finally able to begin building a healthy relationship with her body. It also encouraged her to contend with her emotions, leading her to experiment with psychedelics and other drugs, she says.
Seeking treatment for menopause
Hughes says her menopausal symptoms were treated like a mental health disorder. Instead of being offered treatment like hormonal replacement therapy, considered highly effective for menopausal symptoms like hot flashes and night sweats, she says she was prescribed anti-depressants.
“I came to realize — what many women realize — is that the medical system under-funds, under-researches and underserves women, and particularly women moving into the season of menopause,” she said.
Few doctors have specialized training on managing and treating menopause, leading many women to struggle to find the appropriate care for their needs.
Eventually, Hughes found a women’s health specialist — a “menopause badass” as she puts it — on Vancouver Island where she lives, and says she was finally able to get access to hormone replacement therapy that helped alleviate her symptoms.
WATCH | Hughes says menopause 'messed me up so bad' :
How menopause shook Olympian Clara Hughes
October 12|
Duration
1:40
Speed skater and cyclist Clara Hughes was used to pushing her body to compete at the highest levels of sport, but she says menopause tested her in ways she never expected. She spoke with CBC Radio's The Sunday Magazine about how she found support.Exploring psychedelics
Hughes’ experience with perimenopause and menopause, along with the challenging recovery process from her knee injury, led her to realize her disconnect with her body and her emotions ran much deeper than she thought.
“After, you know, two and a half decades in sport at the highest level, I should be able to feel my body, but I realized I was only able to instruct my body and to direct my body and to demand of my body,” she said.
This led her down a path of self-discovery, which included using psychedelics and other drugs that are illegal substances in Canada.
“I had read a lot and seen a lot online of people's experiences, of life-changing experiences, you know, taking mushrooms or doing LSD. I read about the clinical studies and I was just like, well, maybe this is a way in to seeing if this can open something up.”
Hughes says her supervised sessions “not only opened things up, it cracked me wide open.”
“I realized I was carrying around this vault inside of me, and this vault, I didn't know where the keys were,” she said. “And it was my goal to find those keys and open it up.”
In her new memoir, Learning to Breathe, Clara Hughes describes using psychedelics and other drugs. (Simon & Schuster)
Most psychedelic substances are illegal in Canada, except in specific cases authorized by the federal government, such as clinical trials or in cases that have been granted special exemptions. Psychedelics, such as psilocybin, are currently being researched for safety and efficacy in treating some mental health disorders, like depression and alcoholism.
Hughes acknowledges the sessions were illegal and not suitable for everyone, “but it was definitely for me.”
She credits her struggle with menopause for setting her down a path of healing. She hopes that sharing her story can encourage others, especially women, to ultimately love themselves.
For the first time in her life, Hughes is able to “say that I love this body, I love this woman, I love this self, and she's pretty great.”
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