Emma Barnett says she felt ‘mugged, robbed’ after perimenopause at 38

Emma Barnett, now 40, said she was still waiting to ‘come back’ to who she was before perimenopause. Photograph: Karen Robinson/The Observer

Emma Barnett has said experiencing perimenopause at the age of 38 felt as if she had been “mugged, robbed” of her identity.

The broadcaster, now 40, said on her new BBC podcast, Ready to Talk with Emma Barnett, that it was the “first time in my life I haven’t really wanted to be a woman – it’s the first time I’ve thought, I’d really quite like to be a bloke”.