It’s not green juice. It’s not overpriced collagen powder and it’s definitely not surgery.

Karen Clements is almost 61 with two adult children, two stepchildren, six grandchildren and a marriage of almost 30 years, yet she’s frequently mistaken for being decades younger.

You might be wondering… what’s her secret?

While the health coach goes to Pilates classes, prioritises sleep and eats a nutritious diet, there’s something a little more unconventional she credits for her extraordinary youthful appearance…

Karen Clements lost her spark in her late forties when she hit a wall in perimenopause. ‘I wasn’t happy, I wasn’t sad, I was just numb, flatline. No energy, no sex drive and no joy’

A ‘biohack’ for just US$160 (AU$250 or £120) a month that’s apparently so effective she believes doctors worry it will put them out of business: peptide injections.

‘The whole health system will crumble if women knew what I do,’ she tells me. 

Karen lost her spark in her late forties when she hit a wall in perimenopause.

‘I wasn’t happy, I wasn’t sad, I was just numb, flatline. No energy, no sex drive and no joy,’ she explains.

Karen believed there had to be an alternative to feeling the way she did in perimenopause

One night she and her girlfriends went out to see a musical about the menopause. Her friends found it hysterical, but Karen was terrified.

‘I went with older women in their 50s and 70s and they were roaring at the jokes about women losing control of their bladder, brain fog, no sex drive and how they’d rather have a roast dinner then go to bed with their husbands,’ she says.

‘I thought it was terrifying. Shoot me down if I have to deal with this, I thought. I was completely freaked out.’

Karen, a qualified therapist and trauma coach, believed there had to be an alternative. So, at 52, she took action.

‘I was already feeling flat, exhausted, disconnected and grumpy, and never in the mood for sex,’ she tells me.

‘I’d always been healthy and fit; I wasn’t going to let the menopause ruin me.’

She researched online and found a women’s clinic that specialised in female hormones. She had to wait four months to see the endocrinologist, who prescribed her synthetic patches called Estalis Sequi, a type of hormone replacement therapy containing oestrogen and progesterone.

In addition to the patches, Karen started using testosterone cream that could only be compounded in another state.

Karen is often mistaken for being in her forties

Karen says women over 50 are now ‘rewriting the rules’ of ageing

Karen recalls bursting into tears three days after putting on her first patch: ‘I was back,’ she says.

‘In 72 hours, I felt alive again. My light had been dimmed before but a fire had been lit inside me – and with it a desire to fight for optimal health for all women.’

The results of the treatments were so promising that Karen’s endocrinologist urged her to find a testosterone cream that was stronger.

From then, she spent months researching hormones and biohacking, and eventually found a clinic run by five integrative doctors. An integrative doctor is a licensed medical professional who combines conventional Western medicine with complementary therapies that are evidence-based. 

After thorough blood tests, she was prescribed a trio of compounded creams: an oestrogen cream, a progesterone cream and a testosterone cream. These creams, part of a treatment known as BHRT (Bioidentical Hormone Replacement Therapy), replaced the synthetic patches she was initially prescribed.

BHRT refers to hormones taken from plants that are identical to the hormones our bodies produce naturally. They differ from traditional HRT, which uses synthetic or animal-derived hormones. (It’s important to note not all BHRT products are approved by pharmaceutical watchdogs and your mileage may vary with quality and dosage.)

‘Creams were better than the patches because with creams your body will only take what it needs; the rest it excretes,’ she adds.

In addition, the integrative doctors prescribed a trio of peptide injections, which she takes five mornings a week, then has two days off. The likes of Jennifer Aniston and Trinny Woodall swear by peptide injections for their anti-ageing benefits.

The creams and injections may sound like a lot, but Karen – who spends about US$160 (AU$250 or £120) per month on the peptides and a similar amount every four months for the creams – says it’s absolutely worth it.

Her morning routine now includes a workout and an injection, and she credits her integrative approach with giving her a new lease on life. 

She now attends health conventions around the world and learns from the best minds in longevity, biohacking and hormonal optimisation and shares her knowledge via her health coaching business, Balance with Karen.

Karen says she is often shocked by the blood lab results of some of her female clients.

‘Women in their 40s, 50s and 60s are walking around with dangerously low testosterone levels, and the worst part is their doctors either don’t test for it or bother to tell them.’

Testosterone plays a vital role in sexual function, mood, energy and bone health for women, and quite often is the secret to feeling good throughout menopause and beyond. 

She believes too many women think their best years are behind them, that ageing means slowing down, fading out, becoming invisible.

‘Once we hit the 50-plus mark, it can feel like we’re being quietly traded in. Our kids are moving on, some husbands are chasing women with younger bodies and the world tells us we’re past our prime,’ she says.

‘I say “hell no!” With access to the tools we can have – longevity science, targeted supplements, hormones, peptides and protocols once reserved for the elite, we are rewriting the rules.’