Emma Bunton fears she's missed chance for third baby after entering perimenopause

The Spice Girls star has revealed that she fears she has missed the chance to have a third baby after entering the transition stage before menopause.

Emma Bunton admitted she "cried her eyes out" when she discovered it might be too late to become a mother again now she is perimenopausal, which is where the body naturally transitions towards the menopause.

Detailing her symptoms in an interview with The Mail on Sunday's You magazine, the 45-year-old said: "I started to feel unbalanced and anxious.

"At first I put it down to the pandemic. But then the anxiety became more regular, until it was daily.

"I was also lethargic. Something wasn't right. I looked up the symptoms and saw I had quite a few.

"So I spoke to someone on Zoom who came to the same conclusion. I was perimenopausal."

Emma, who shares two sons, Beau, 13, and Tate, 10, with longtime partner Jade Jones, added: "I thought, 'Is this the end?'

"It’s been a very weird time. I’m a very mumsy person – when I see my friends’ babies, I always become broody. But now I thought, 'OK, this is it'."

Emma Bunton is now on a low dose of hormone replacement therapy as she contemplates whether to try for another baby.

Back in 2019, Emma opened up about her battle with endometriosis, a condition that affects the lining of the womb, revealing she was told by doctors at 25 she might struggle to get pregnant.

"That nearly broke me," the pop star told Stella magazine. "I knew I had the right partner; I knew I wanted to be a mum. I didn’t give up hope, but it wasn’t happening."

The singer thinks that competing on Strictly Come Dancing in 2006 helped her get pregnant with her first son Beau.

"I have no idea whether it was doing all the exercise but I was so happy," she revealed. "Strictly got me pregnant."

She took a pregnancy test when her doctor called her after watching her dancing on the show, saying she had a feeling Emma was pregnant.

"She’d seen me on the television holding my hands over my stomach and she just had a feeling I was pregnant," Emma explained. "I did a test straight away and I was."