Emmerdale's Natalie Anderson has opened up about her life-changing diagnosis as she admits she thought she was "going mad".
The actress, who is best known for her role as Alicia Gallgher in the long running ITV soap, has spoken out about the brain fog that was affected her every day life up until getting her diagnosis. Natalie, who starred in Emmerdale from 2010 until 2015, was eventually diagnosed with perimenopause.
She has now spoken out about her condition in order to raise awareness. In an interview with the Sun newspaper, she said: “I spoke to a doctor and they said it could be a sign of being perimenopausal."
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Speaking of how it felt to be given the diagnosis Natalie added: “It felt brilliant, I felt like, ‘Oh yes, there’s an answer’. You want to be able to say, ‘I know now what this is. I’m not going mad’. And that’s the common one that we see a lot from women, ‘Am I going mad?’. No. You’re not going mad."
According the the NHS website perimenopause is when you have symptoms before your periods have stopped. You reach menopause when you have not had a period for 12 months.
Both the menopause and perimenopause can cause symptoms like anxiety, mood swings, brain fog, hot flushes and irregular periods. These symptoms can start years before your periods stop and carry on afterwards.
Speaking of her symptoms, Natalie said: “I was like, ‘What is going on here?’ I was thinking to myself, ‘You know what? This isn’t like me. I’m really sharp and I can learn scripts quickly’. It felt like I had ‘baby brain’. However, ‘baby brain’ and ‘brain fog’ are treated very differently — you have to ask why.
“Oh, and I had blurry vision as well. I was driving along the motorway and I was thinking, ‘What the hell just happened?’."
Whilst she is best known for her soap opera days Natalie has since moved on and carved out an entirely new career for herself. She launched a lifestyle brand called the Capsule in 2016, which focuses on topics including fashion, beauty and wellbeing.
This was later followed by the launch of its accompanying podcast 'The Capsule in Conversation', where Natalie interviews celebrities and experts on various topics.
As ever, we'll continue to bring you the big Emmerdale news about what is happening in the village and away from it. You can visit our Emmerdale homepage to find the latest gossip about the soap and its stars.
Emmerdale airs weekdays from 7.30pm on ITV1.
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