A Chat with Monika Björn

Fitness profile Monika Björn is many things, but above all, she is a menopause activist.

Follow her journey through menopause, exploring how she experimented with food supplements and hunted for information.
“I try to share as much knowledge as I possibly can,” says Monika.

When urinary tract infections, styes, sleep problems, low mood, and hair loss—to name just a few of her symptoms—began to occur one after another, her frustration grew, along with her curiosity. When no one in the healthcare system explained that these could be clear signs of perimenopause, she took matters into her own hands.
Fuelled by this frustration, she began to gather vast amounts of information. This soon led to a book, Stark genom klimakteriet (Strong Through Menopause), which garnered significant media attention and led to sold-out lectures across the country. The interest from women was immense, as it's a journey every woman in the world experiences in her own way.

“Life is too short to go around feeling unwell. We women are world champions at just getting on with it. I want to live life to the fullest and feel as good as possible,” she says.

Monika Björn has worked in fitness and health her entire professional life. She is a qualified personal trainer with a Bachelor's degree in sports science and psychology, a yoga teacher, a coach, and has also studied physiotherapy. She pores over new research and studies on menopause almost daily.
“It's one of the most enjoyable parts of my job; you never stop learning, and there are always new things to discover.”

After finishing her upper secondary education, she packed her bags and moved to the UK, soon settling in Scotland, where she stayed for four years.

“I worked partly in a gym, but also ran my own business as a personal trainer and group fitness instructor.”

Back home in Sweden, she studied sports science, pedagogy, and psychology. Alongside her studies, she worked as a master trainer for spinning classes all over the world.

“I studied during the week and travelled the world at weekends. It was a completely crazy, wonderful, and educational period that lasted for over ten years.”

“After a few years of travelling, I sought out yoga. I say sought out, because this was long before smartphones and Google. It meant you either had to look up 'yoga' in the Yellow Pages (a kind of large, heavy, physical phone book) or rely on the grapevine and simply ask around your network,” Monika explains.

Fast-forwarding to today, she has written another book called Yoga för dig som tränar (Yoga for Those Who Train).
Her third book is on its way and will be released in August.

For the past five years, her focus and main interest have been on women's health, as she entered perimenopause herself a few years ago. The information available was poor, as was the treatment she received from the healthcare system.

“My own level of knowledge in that area was like a black hole in space,” says Monika.

She began experimenting herself with things like food supplements to support her sleep. This helped for about seven months, as her hormone levels continued to change.

“Today, I feel very well with a combination of food supplements and bioidentical hormones.”
“It's high time that menopause became less of a taboo subject and that we women get access to the knowledge required to make informed, individual health choices. Life is too short to go around feeling unwell.”