My Menopause Story

Hi, I’m Michelle Bonev, an Italian actress and award-winning filmmaker turned Certified Menopause Coaching Specialist and 3D Functional Movement Coach. I’m also the founder of 3D Functional Yoga by Michelle Bonev Method™.

At 54, Menopause hit me hard: my DEXA scan showed advanced osteopenia, with osteoporosis knocking at the door. It felt like a slap I never saw coming.

My symptoms were brutal. Hot flashes. Joint pain. Frozen shoulders. Weight gain. A bloated belly. Brain fog. Depression. Hair loss. Bone loss. Poor sleep. Pelvic floor dysfunction. And no one could help me. Not even my doctors.

They kept saying, “You’re just aging. Welcome to your new normal.”

I couldn’t accept that. I was convinced there had to be a way to take my body back.

The truth was, I knew nothing about Menopause. No one had ever talked to me about it. Not really. All I knew was this: around 50, a woman goes through a passage where she is no longer fertile. That’s it.

But reality was another room entirely. It was painful and bewildering. It was like waking up in a different body.

So I studied. I searched for answers. And I became a Certified Menopause Coaching Specialist.

I found something huge: science had already given midlife women real strategies to avoid pain and thrive, not just survive, in this chapter of life.

The key was combining HRT with smart nutrition and movement. So I made a 3-step plan, and within two weeks, my worst symptoms were gone. I started feeling like myself again.

To address my advanced osteopenia, I started heavy lifting and impact training, following the protocols. But I got injured. Back pain. Knee pain. I had to stop. I learned the hard way that if the joints and ligaments are not prepared, injury is almost guaranteed.

I had to go back to research, and there I discovered 3D Functional Movement, a science-backed, multiplanar, dynamic method that restores full joint function in all 3 planes of motion, sagittal, frontal, and transverse, while supporting the pelvic core neuromuscular system and bone remodeling. A real alternative to heavy lifting.

That is how I became a Certified 3D Functional Movement Coach and a Functional Yoga System Specialist with Gray Institute®.

That is how I created my own 3D Movement method, 3D Functional Yoga by Michelle Bonev Method™ for Menopause and Perimenopause support, and I addressed my advanced osteopenia without getting injured.

I realized that everything I had learned through my certifications was never mine. It belongs to every woman out there still struggling with devastating Menopause and Perimenopause symptoms without any support.

No woman should have to go through all this alone.

So I founded the Women Love Pro-Age Community, a real sisterhood of women who choose to age with power. We don’t chase yesterday’s face, we build an unbreakable future.

Through weekly evidence-based Menopause Q&A live coaching sessions and 3D Functional Yoga classes, I help women over 40 stay strong, healthy, and independent for life.

Know this, Menopause can be more than just a phase to survive. It can become a powerful chapter where you reclaim your strength and confidence.

You can start here by joining Women Love Pro-Age. Let’s build an unbreakable future together.