STEPS star Claire Richards has shared her experience of “horrendous” anxiety during perimenopause, which left her unable to leave the house.
The 45-year-old singing star admitted she realised something was wrong when she began getting “the worse palpitations,” which happened while filming The Masked Singer.
She explained: “This last year has been a weird one.
“I started getting perimenopause symptoms and I was like, ‘Hold on a second, I don’t like this’.
“When I was doing The Masked Singer, the anxiety was horrendous.
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“I was having the worst palpitations, pounding through my neck. I didn’t feel I could give it my best at all.”
Perimenopause means "around menopause".
It refers to the time during which your body makes the natural transition to menopause, thus marking the end of a woman's reproductive years.
A woman may begin transitioning sometime in her 40s. However, this transitional period happens at a different age for every woman, and it could happen as early as mid-30s.
Throughout the menopausal transition, some subtle — and some not-so-subtle — changes in your body may take place.
Claire continued to tell The Mirror that she didn’t seek treatment right away, due to “fear and denial.”
She said: “You kind of feel like you’re shrivelling up from the inside out. It took me a long time to address it. It’s a milestone, isn’t it?
“I’m not an angry person at all, but you can feel it rising.
“My husband knows I’m going through something and he’s been really patient.”The Steps star, who is mum to Charlie, 16, and Daisy, 13, even struggled to leave her home when things got really bad.
Claire turned to HRT oestrogen spray, to help with the hot flushes and mood changes she was experiencing.
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She added: “I’m definitely feeling more like myself. It must be the HRT starting to work.”
