Anthea Turner first went to the GP when she started having symptoms she couldn’t describe back 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 local surgery “snivelling” through her symptoms, 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 anything but simple. Turner describes her perimenopause as colliding with one of the most turbulent periods of her life.
She had begun having problems within her marriage to her then-husband Grant Bovey, CEO of Imagine Homes, who had just declared bankruptcy 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 explain what she was going through. “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 loss of confidence was one of the most important things 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 solution, she admits, was to focus on vanity.
“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 began with her diet. “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 simplest rule, and she 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 visible difference she began to see in her hair.
Once her trademark, it had started to break 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 familiar story for many women going through hormonal changes, as falling oestrogen can make hair thinner, drier and more 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 women in midlife rediscovering their confidence, Turner says she’s noticed more conversation around hair and lash loss – a once-taboo topic now openly discussed on social media – she’s found using serums and scalp oils, favouring brands like UKLash, to be transformative.
“It’s so important to talk about these things,” she adds, “you realise you’re not on your own.”
The same logic applies to skincare. In the first five years after menopause, collagen production decreases by 30 per cent.
She’s learned that post-menopause skin “needs more moisture and fewer harsh products,” stating that ingredients like ceramides, hyaluronic acid, peptides and niacinamide really help.
Exercise has played its part – but 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 also admits that she’s not above 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 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 turns out wasn’t the end of anything but a reset for Turner: “the best wake-up call she ever had.”
