Davina McCall has detailed her experience of going through the menopause and compared the "brain fog" she suffered with to "some kind of dementia".
Davina McCall admitted that she feared she would lose her job because of the effect her symptoms had on her memory.
Speaking about her experience with the menopause, Davina recalled how she suffered with not getting enough sleep, night sweats and hot flushes.
"I thought it was something that happened in your 50s – you got a couple of hot flushes and were through it," she told The Sun. "I had no idea about how much our bodies need hormones. I was having night sweats, hot flushes, and I wasn't sleeping."
She continued: "And the brain fog… I remember sitting on the drive and looking at some grass, thinking: “What’s the word for that?” I thought it was some kind of dementia."
It was then that Davina McCall sought professional help after her work began to suffer and he feared losing her job, revealing she turned to hormone replacement therapy (HRT) that "brought her back".
"It was only a couple of years later, when it was affecting my work, that I went to my gynaecologist, who said I needed hormone replacement.
"I thought I was going to lose my job. Then I went on HRT, and literally two weeks later I was like: 'Oh, I’m back. This is life again.'"
The 53-year-old also opened up about her mental health and admitted she's feeling more confident the older she gets after doing "lots of work" on herself.
She said: "There’s got to be some benefit to getting older! In my 20s, I was crippled with low self-confidence, and especially when I got clean [Davina’s been sober from drink and drugs for 26 years], I hated myself.
"I did a lot of work on myself emotionally and physically... but it was still an ongoing battle.
"Then being a mum and feeling like a cow with two enormous great big udders… Now I feel... better than I have done in years, because I was perimenopausal for a long time before that."
She added: "I’m ready to take on the next chapter feeling blimmin’ awesome."
