Zoe Ball has opened up about her “horrific” menopause, revealing she suffered from crippling anxiety, panic attacks and exhaustion before finding a treatment that finally brought her relief.
The BBC Radio 2 presenter, 54, discussed her experience on the Dig In podcast with co-host Jo Whiley, describing how she manages her symptoms with daily bioidentical gel and quarterly blood tests.
A bioidentical gel is a type of hormone replacement therapy (HRT) that uses oestrogen identical to the hormones naturally produced by the body.
“I take those everyday because I was getting some really bad periods. I was getting some really nasty random big bleeds,” she shared.
“And when I was doing the Breakfast Show, I had horrific anxiety. That was my worst sort of symptom and that involved panic attacks, not being able to breathe, a lot of tears, quite a low mood and it was quite frightening at times.”
Ball admitted she initially turned to antidepressants to help manage her anxiety before realising the menopause was the main trigger.

Adding: “Once I sussed out that was a major cause... because I did go on anti-depressants for a while for my anxiety, but I'm off those now and I'm really glad to be off those, but they did help for a little period of time.
“It's difficult with things like this because sometimes you are not sure what is what. You don't know whether some of your symptoms are coming from things in life or mainly menopause so you have to try these things.”
She added that her hormone treatment has helped her feel much more stable day to day.
“But now I am on a very steady, I've got steady moods,” she shared. “I sometimes get sad but that's just life, it happens. But definitely hormone wise I feel so level.”
The presenter’s comments come after a difficult year in which she revealed she suffered an emotional breakdown following the death of her mother, Julia, from pancreatic cancer in April 2024, a loss that led Ball to take a break from her morning show.
The broadcaster initially stepped away from her BBC Radio 2 breakfast show after the loss and later announced she would leave the role permanently at the end of the year, with Scott Mills taking over the flagship slot.

Speaking on her podcast Dig It with Jo Whiley last month, Ball recalled the devastating impact of her grief.
“I couldn’t work. I was on the floor in the kitchen. I couldn’t, I couldn’t move,” she admitted. “I had a proper emotional breakdown, you know, I haven’t really talked about it actually.
“But it was, yeah, it was brutal. I had an amazing doctor who turned up at my door with coffee and bagels and said, ‘So, we need to get you some help,’ and he was wonderful.”
Before her departure, Ball was one of the BBC’s highest-paid female presenters, earning a reported £950,000 a year.
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