How Sarah Storey is leading pioneering new menopause research

If Sarah Storey had rode off into the sunset as one of the legends of London 2012 following an 11th Paralympic title, her status among the greats of British sport would already be secure.

Two children, 12 years and another eight golds later, Storey is instead still trailblazing. After defending her road-race and time-trial crowns in Paris, she is competing at the World Para-Cycling Championships this weekend, but the most far-reaching legacy may only just be starting.

It was announced in January that Storey had become a visiting professor at Manchester Metropolitan University and, upon returning from Zurich, she will embark on a research project into exercise, sport, the perimenopause and the menopause.

It is a subject where preconceptions often still override what limited knowledge there is – but here is the unusual twist. With Storey herself experiencing symptoms and still eyeing the Los Angeles Games in 2028 when she will be 50, she finds herself not just among an expert team of academics, but better placed than perhaps any woman in the world to share her personal experiences.

“It’s exciting to have a hand in and be living at the same time,” she says. “It’s in its early stages but it is something that we have been managing with me and thinking, ‘Actually, is there something here that would benefit the wider population?’ I have already been managing symptoms, dealing with that side of growing older.

“There has been lots of evidence around the menstrual cycle, female health for younger athletes but, when it comes to older athletes, most international careers end by mid-thirties, so there is not a great cohort to study.

“I’ll be part of the study; I can be regardless of the level of competition I’m at. Obviously my clock doesn’t stop ticking. I have the elite sport habits we can utilise. It’s a huge motivation to think that you could be knocking on a different door that could open for other people to come through behind you.”

Most important, Storey stresses, is the chance to transform knowledge about what is possible, and indeed beneficial, for women at any stage of health and fitness.

“I think if you speak to any woman in their mid-to-late-forties, they will already be aware of something changing and happening; it might be headaches connected to hormone changes, it might be cycle changes, it might be things catching you by surprise,” says Storey. “It happens in a different way for everyone. Research will help us to provide some non-medication solutions. Managing health proactively is something I have always been really interested in contributing to.

“I’m really keen to reach women who don’t feel like they are sporty. If you love going for a walk at weekends, and that’s how you get your exercise, that counts. This isn’t about being fast. It’s not about competition. It’s about well-being and living longer in good health. It’s declining massively; and is some of that down to a lack of understanding of middle age and what happens?”

The study is likely to focus on women above the age of 38 and aspects that are being considered include bone health and osteoporosis, which can be linked to falls in estrogen, and what activities may help. Potential trends in women with different pregnancy experiences, or who have not had children, will also be considered. Storey hopes that the work will boost participation and improve understanding of sport’s benefits and perceived risks. “If you look at any sport, in the Masters categories [generally starting at aged 35 or 40], the male entry is always way bigger than the female,” she says. “So how do we increase the body of women who feel they could take on a challenge? Is there a preconception that you are not doing certain sports because of the risk of X, Y and Z.

“In pregnancy, for me, people were very judgemental about the fact I continued to ride my bike up to contractions. It was, ‘What happens if you fall off?’ I was like, ‘It’s not something I make a habit of. I’m going to judge each day. If it’s wet, and I think there’s a chance, I won’t go out and I’ll go on the turbo. A sunny day and dry roads, there is no reason why I would start falling off’.”

The success of British mums across both the Olympics and Paralympics was a big theme of the summer, with Storey also demonstrating it is possible to compete at the highest level into your late-40s. “The challenge with perimenopause is you don’t know what day your cycle is relative to the end,” she says. “I think it’s about managing symptoms. You can have a day when you are completely wiped out, think you are ill, which may have been caused by a hormone crash … and even on the same day you can go out and do a PB on the bike.

“I’ve had that even in the run-up to the Games. You try not to overthink, stay positive and manage what you can. That was how I got through the Games as new things were throwing themselves at me in those final couple of months.

“Our bodies are amazing – when you think how they expand to have children, come back … and how you keep that fine-tuning going beyond what would traditionally be seen as the elite sport lifetime.”

You can see just in Storey’s face the passion that she will bring to the research. The basic love still of riding her bike also constantly shines. A 32-year winning span is simply unprecedented in any major sporting arena and, while the margins have narrowed, the buzz of competing and training has not diminished.

Storey won the women’s road race by 7min 22sec in London, 3min 29sec in Rio, seven seconds in Tokyo and then just a single bike length in Paris, when she overhauled her 19-year-old French rival Heidi Gaugain in a dramatic final kilometre.

Reliving the race almost a fortnight on, she identifies the crucial quality of being ready to lose in backing her instinct not to overreact to Gaugain’s initial burst. “I retained some of that final match you burn,” says Storey. “You have to have a poker face – you have to be prepared that it might not work, but that this is the card you have chosen. You have to be comfortable with that uncomfortable feeling of being hunted. In a sadistic way you can enjoy the process. Enjoyment leads to good decisions because I was relaxed.

“It is a struggle at times, like for anyone. The older the children are, the more they have their own activities [Storey and husband Barney have an 11-year-old daughter and seven-year-old son]. It’s fitting together jigsaw pieces. I have always enjoyed the process of putting together a plan.

“It isn’t a sacrifice because you have a choice – and I think that is one of the keys to longevity. If it’s a choice, you are never going to resent what you’re doing.”