Kristjana Gisladottir: Turning It All Around After Surgical Menopause
At 33, Kristjana Gisladottir was a “big ball of energy.”
A mother of two, she walked a lot, kept her house spotless, baked every Friday, and still had energy to spend quality time with her kids and husband.
“I got so much done,” she said.
But then health problems with her uterus, including endometriosis, led to her being told she needed a radical hysterectomy.
Thrown Into Menopause Overnight
“I went in for surgery and they just told me they’d give me hormones after,” said Gisladottir, who had her hysterectomy in 2021 at the age of 33. “I never got any other information about what would happen to my body or my health. Just ‘take the hormones and you’ll be fine.’”
Almost immediately after surgery, she began experiencing extreme symptoms of perimenopause.
“I was so emotional and had such a big temper. It was insane. I kept getting sicker and weaker and not being me. It was horrible, and mostly because I didn’t know what was going on,” she said.
She also lives with CRPS (complex regional pain syndrome), which worsened when her body was thrown into menopause.
Her symptoms included:
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Plummeting libido
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Poor sleep and memory loss
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Severe anxiety
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Hot flashes that felt like burning from the inside
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Frequent cavities
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Constant nausea
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Intense headaches
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Dry, flaky, grey-ish skin
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Weak hair and nails
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Weight gain
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Muscle and joint pain
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A weakened immune system that left her sick all the time
“It felt like I had gone from having the body of a 33-year-old to that of a 90-year-old,” she said.
Searching for Answers
The hormones she was first prescribed weren’t working. A new gynecologist changed her prescription, which helped the hot flashes “but not much more.”
That’s when Kristjana decided to become active again. One of her best friends is Katrin Davidsdottir’s mother, so she reached out.
Katrin’s mom recommended Empower. Kristjana had never considered CrossFit before but was open to trying.
Enter Empower
Last year, she began the Take Off program.
“It was so difficult getting started. My body was not working with me… I did not recognize my body, my health and even could not answer what music I liked. I was so lost,” she said.
But she stuck with it. And quickly realized Empower was giving her more than workouts — it was giving her education and community.
“It was the first time I got any education about menopause,” she said of the resources Dr. Stacy Sims put into the program. “Just that alone was huge.”
Learning what was happening to her body helped her take control and do her own research.
One Year Later
A year into Empower, Kristjana says her life has completely turned around — physically and mentally.
“The biggest thing that has improved is my mental health, but also weightlifting has made me realize that I’m actually really strong and it’s making me be able to do more. I’m feeling muscles I didn’t know I had,” she said.
She now works out four days a week, sometimes at home and sometimes at CrossFit Reykjavík.
Before Empower, her CRPS made it hard to use her right arm. Now she can. Her hips have opened up, she’s more mobile, and many of her symptoms have improved:
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Her libido is back “big time”
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Anxiety attacks are gone
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She’s lost weight
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Muscle and joint pain have largely disappeared
“It is making my body go from feeling like it was 90 and now it feels like I’m 50,” she said, laughing. “I’m turning around the process.”
Support That Changes Everything
Kristjana says the coaching, community, and support she’s received are unlike anything she’s experienced before.
“I used to go to a normal gym and people stay each to their own, but going to the CrossFit gym, I started getting some coaching,” she said. She also loves the support from other women in the program “even though we are scattered all over the world.”
An unexpected bonus — her 14-year-old daughter now wants to join her workouts.
“She’s a 14-year-old. Mom isn’t fun anymore, but she asks to go with me,” Kristjana said, smiling.
Kristjana’s Message: Be Your Own Advocate
“Do you research, for the love of God, do your research, because the changes that are happening are massive,” she said.
Perimenopause “is not something anyone has ever told us about. It has been kept a secret,” she added.
Her advice: be proactive, know what’s coming, and take action.
And her final recommendation — join Empower for three reasons: the workouts, the education, and the community.
“When you strength train, you feel like you’re winning at life. You feel like you’re strong, you’re awesome, you got it, and that’s something we really need during this stage of life,” she said.
