Raising awareness of menopause gave me purpose, says Davina McCall

TV presenter recalls hiding premenopausal symptoms at work

Davina McCall experienced menopause at age 44 (Getty Images)

Davina McCall became an advocate for raising awareness of menopause “by accident” but doing so has given her purpose, the TV presenter has said.

McCall, 54, who is currently writing a book titled Menopausing, has been outspoken about the lack of medical knowledge on the subject in recent years.

She opened up about her own menopause journey, which she started at the age of 44, in a Channel 4 documentary last year.

She also shared her experience of using hormone replacement therapy (HRT), a treatment used to relieve symptoms of menopause. HRT is currently in extremely short supply, with around a million women in the UK unable to get the medication.

In a new interview with Good Housekeeping, of which she is the June cover star, the former Big Brother presenter said she had little knowledge of the menopause before it affected her.

“I sort of fell into it by accident because I wanted to learn more about the menopause for myself and, as I did, I thought, ‘How is it that all women don’t know these things, when 51 per cent of the population is female?’,” she said.

“What’s lovely is that being able to use my platform to spread the word has given me purpose at this stage in my life.”

McCall is set to return with a follow-up Channel 4 documentary, Davina McCall: Sex, Mind and the Menopause, on 2 May.

The programme will focus on how menopause affects women at work.

A 2019 survey, carried out by Bupa, estimated that almost 900,000 women in the UK have left their jobs over an undefined period of time because of symptoms associated with menopause.

Common symptoms include anxiety, brain fog, poor concentration, hot flushes, fatigue and irregular and heavy bleeding.

McCall has admitted that when she first became perimenopausal at work, she did not want to talk about it with colleagues.

“I was doing a live TV show called Stepping Out and I was forgetting the names of contestants and making mistakes on the autocue, which I’d never done before.

“One day, the producer came into my dressing room and said, ‘Are you okay? You don’t seem yourself’ and I said ‘Oh, I’m fine.’

“Then, when she left, I just cried. I thought ‘What’s happening to me?”’

In October, McCall joined other famous faces like Penny Lancaster and Marielle Frostrup at a rally in parliament square to celebrate the government’s pledge to increase menopause support and reduce HRT costs.

On Sunday, health secretary Sajid Javid announced that he intends to appoint an HRT tsar.

However, shortages in HRT have left women struggling with debilitating menopause symptoms. One woman said she is concerned that if she stops taking the medication it could “cause a mental and physical impact that will likely see me have to give up work”.