06 October 2023 , 14:25
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Lisa Snowdon opened up on feeling "lonely" as she experienced a series of different "painful" perimenopause symptoms.
The 51-year-old told the Loose Women that there has been a lot of positive change in recent years when it comes perimenopause awareness, but there is still a lot to be understood. She said: "There’s so much more out there now and you can make a decision and can understand what's happening.
"Whereas 10 years ago, I didn't know and I think when you're alone and you're doing it on your own and you don't have that information, that's when it's a scary, lonely place to be. Knowing what we know now, we can work through it, we can navigate it, we can get the help we need – so don't be scared, just be prepared."
Lisa wants to make sure women have more information available (ITV)Opening up on her own experience, she said: "It was painful. It was really hard to work out what's happening to me and if any of you have gone through perimenopause it’s a bit of a shapeshifter. One year and you'll feel like this and you're be anxious, depressed, low, over-emotional, then your periods, your cycles will completely change.
"And then I put on three stone and that's hard when you're in any work situation, but when [especially] you're doing TV. Then you can get brain fog and all that sort of stuff. There's about 60 symptoms and counting, there's loads of lesser known symptoms, like dry eye disease, vertigo and tinnitus and all these kinds of things, but I just navigated it by myself."
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The TV star, who was promoting her book Just Getting Started: Lessons in Life, Love and Menopause, continued: "That's why I've been really open and passionate about talking about it. And, also I just want women to fast track their diagnosis, fast track their health and not spend as much money as I did. I spent a lot of money trying to work out what was wrong with me and I don't want women to have to waste that time or that money and that's why I wrote the book."