Singer Anastacia has spoken candidly about her experience of menopause, as a breast cancer survivor.
The American I’m Outta Love singer, 55, said on the White Wine Question Time podcast this week that she had no idea she was going through menopause at first and instead thought she had a ”brain tumour”.
Anastacia, whose real name is Anastacia Lyn Newkirk, says she didn’t know the symptoms she was experience were “hormone-related”.
Watch the video above.
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“I didn’t even realise I was going through such hell that it was caused by menopause,” she explained on the podcast.
“I didn’t know my exhaustion; I didn’t know my brain fog. I didn’t know all the things – I just thought I was tired… I was diagnosing myself, but had no idea any of this was hormone-related.”
“I guess I was waiting for that ball to drop. My ball was, I thought I had a brain tumour and life was going horrible, and I was really, really scared,” she said.
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“In my head, I had no idea the things I was going through were actually in the list [of symptoms of menopause] because it’s a long list.”
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She added that she would encourage younger women in their forties to get their hormones checked as the female body and hormones change on the regular.
“When I got all of these other things checked out, this guy in Switzerland was like, I think you’re going through some hormone stuff.
“I told him, ‘It doesn’t feel anything like that, I have hot flashes and I’m OK with that'”.
According to the Mayo Clinic, symptoms of menopause include hot flashes, chills, night sweats, mood changes, irregular or no periods.
The singer, who has Crohn’s disease, has battled breast cancer twice and previously underwent a double mastectomy.
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