Anthea Turner first went to the GP when she began having signs she couldn’t describe again in 2012.
“The most difficult thing for me at the time was actually explaining myself,” she says. “When I started out on my journey, there just wasn’t the conversation. You could, if you really looked, find something – but nobody really wanted to talk about menopause, because it was this horrible admission as a woman that you’re getting old – and God forbid we want to admit that!”
Sitting in her native surgical procedure “snivelling” by her signs, the broadcaster, now 65, left with a prescription for tranquilisers.
“He said, ‘I’m going to prescribe you tranquilisers.’ Before I even took one, I thought: no, no, this has got to be wrong – and obviously I went on my own journey.”
That journey was something however easy. Turner describes her perimenopause as colliding with one among the most turbulent intervals of her life.
She had begun having issues inside her marriage to her then-husband Grant Bovey, CEO of Imagine Homes, who had simply declared chapter in 2010.
“My ex-husband’s business was going down. I rolled up my sleeves and did what all women do, ‘I’ll work my way out of this.’ […] I was literally commuting back and forth to Canada and filming and coming home then somewhere in all this melee I was going through the menopause as well.
“They were difficult times,” she says, “[menopause] doesn’t come at a good time in your life.”
She even wrote her husband a letter to elucidate what she was going by. “I tried to put into words what was happening to me, but then of course I later found out he was having an affair and wasn’t interested in his sweaty wife,” she laughs.
“Your confidence takes the hit – and confidence is the key to life. When you start to lose it, it’s a downward spiral.”
However, recognising a lack of confidence was one among the most essential issues Turner did, and menopause ended up being transformative.
“It’s probably the best wake-up call you’ll ever have to take control,” she says. “Up until then, we’ve partied, we’ve eaten whatever we wanted, we haven’t really thought about our health because we didn’t need to. Then there comes a point where you have a big night out and it takes three days to get over it.”
Her resolution, she admits, was to deal with self-importance.
“How was I going to get my confidence back? I was going to use vanity and self-preservation,” she laughs. “Sometimes that’s what you need. You look in the mirror and say, OK then, my skin, my hair, my waistline – they don’t look the same.
“There’s nothing wrong with a little bit of vanity to get that confidence back.”
Turner’s reset started together with her eating regimen. “I cut out processed foods and sugar,” she says. “[Now] I do the 80:20 rule – 80 per cent of things are good and 20 per cent I can have that croissant. I apply it to food, clothes, exercise, everything.”
It’s her easiest rule, and she or he swears by it. “The cleaner you eat, the less complicated it becomes,” she says.
“If you have to put your glasses on to read the ingredients on the back of a packet, it’s probably not good.”
The catalyst that kickstarted her diet-change was the seen distinction she started to see in her hair.
Once her trademark, it had began to interrupt off. “My hairdresser accused me of cutting it myself,” she says, “I said, no, I haven’t! He said, well it’s all broken at the back.”
It’s a well-recognized story for a lot of ladies going by hormonal adjustments, as falling oestrogen could make hair thinner, drier and extra brittle.
“When I cut sugar, slowly that tanker started to turn around,” she says, “I didn’t change my haircare routine – it was beauty from within.”
Like many ladies in midlife rediscovering their confidence, Turner says she’s seen extra dialog round hair and lash loss – a once-taboo subject now overtly mentioned on social media – she’s discovered utilizing serums and scalp oils, favouring manufacturers like UKLashto be transformative.
“It’s so important to talk about these things,” she provides, “you realise you’re not on your own.”
The similar logic applies to skincare. In the first 5 years after menopause, collagen manufacturing decreases by 30 per cent.
She’s discovered that post-menopause pores and skin “needs more moisture and fewer harsh products,” stating that elements like ceramides, hyaluronic acid, peptides and niacinamide actually assist.
Exercise has performed its half – however she’s ditched the punishing routines. “You don’t have to do HIIT workouts,” she says, “just little by little – food, exercise, sleep – start ticking those things off.”
Turner additionally admits that she’s not above just a few aesthetic tweaks.
“I haven’t frowned since I was 40 – frankly, I’ve needed to on many occasions,” she laughs, referring to Botox injectables, “but I cannot always look as angry as I feel.
“I do have a tiny bit of filler just in the apples [of my cheeks]. Then I do all the facial exercises and I have got the [LED] mask and I love it but I don’t know how much it works.
“I’m just always trying to keep things in balance.”
For Turner, menopause was much less an ending than a recalibration. “First off, you have to admit things are changing,” she says, “you might not want another baby, but when those doors close, it affects you mentally. Still, once you accept it, there’s freedom.
“You’ll speak with greater confidence because you’ve got more air miles behind you than in front of you.”
And now in her 60s, she’s busier than ever and surprisingly optimistic.
“I’m in a business where you weren’t meant to work after 40, but now I’m working because of my age, not despite it,” she says.
Menopause it seems wasn’t the finish of something however a reset for Turner: “the best wake-up call she ever had.”