Davina McCall has compared going through the menopause to how she felt when she was trying to kick her heroin addiction.
The 53-year-old telly star pointed out the sleepless nights, poor vision and severe night sweats took her back to when she was going through recovery.
The TV presenter, who was perimenopause at 44, also worried in her most intense days that she was "going mad" and seriously believed she was suffering from early onset dementia.
She has a new documentary, Davina McCall: Sex, Myths and the Menopause, which is set to explore her journey through menopause and taking hormone replacement therapy (HRT).
Ahead of the documentary, Davina decided to share with her fans what it was like going through the menopause and how she didn't realise what was happening to her or her body in an online Q&A.
She said: "I thought I was going mad. I even thought I was possibly getting some sort of early-onset dementia.
"The menopause didn’t even cross my mind because I was young - 44 - so I battled on for a year. I didn’t know who to talk to, where to go.
"I was getting night sweats, and what was horrible is that I’m a recovering addict and it took me back to being sick and trying to recover from addiction.
"Then I couldn’t read the autocue. It began affecting my vision — because of lack of sleep I couldn’t see or read."
She spoke about how an ITV producer approached her as they were concerned that she didn't seem like herself at work.
She was struggling to concentrate, feeling "in a fog" from how it was affecting her.
With her history of struggling with drug addiction, Davina is hesitant to take over-the-counter medication whenever she suffers an ailment, refusing to take anything for headaches, so she opted to not go down a medical route.
She used exercise and herbal remedies in efforts to reduce the symptoms but she said that it didn't "cut it", with her going on to see a private gynaecologist who prescribed HRT for her.
