Gabby Logan doesn’t shy away from talking about things that women have spent generations brushing under the carpet. In her podcast, The Mid.Point, she’s spoken to many famous women about the struggles they’ve faced in midlife, from parenting problems to mastering dating apps for over fifties.
But at the top of her list is one of the biggest female stress points – the menopause. And she’s very happy to discuss it with us today too.
Gabby, who turns 50 later this month, didn’t recognise her perimenopausal symptoms at first, until Mariella Frostrup started describing her own in an interview for the show.
“I was thinking, ‘Oh, that’s funny. I’ve noticed that. My skin has felt dry, I’ve felt anxious, I’ve had brain fog,’” Gabby tells us. “I was 47, so honestly, I thought I was a bit young. I didn’t realise that you could get those symptoms earlier.”
As a sports presenter, often covering live events on TV, from the London Marathon to the Six Nations rugby, brain fog was certainly problematic. “I’d get that feeling where you can’t get the word for… you know, the thing… that thing people ride, with a saddle and four legs... It was awful. I started to cover my tracks – I’d write down more prompts than normal. I was thinking, “Oh, why is
my brain doing this?” I started getting very paranoid.”
The problem, she says, is that so many women only really recognise what she calls the “high profile” symptoms. “Hot flushes, night sweats. But I didn’t get those. And underneath, there’s all these other things going on.”
For Gabby, that included feeling anxious, irritable and unable to cope with situations that she would normally have taken in her stride. “I didn’t recognise myself,” she says. “Being grumpy and unenthusiastic is not me. I felt like a little alien was living with me and I didn’t want to share much time with her.”
All this coincided with the pandemic, a time when most of us were feeling discombobulated anyway. “Going back to work after lockdown I was nervous, wondering if I would be able to do it,” says Gabby.
“I was thinking, ‘Is this just from lockdown?’ But I knew it wasn’t. I even wondered if I needed to get an end-date for presenting and bow out gracefully – but I wasn’t ready to.”
Enter Mariella and the realisation that she wasn’t losing her mind, she was just starting to go through the menopause. “It was nice to be able to work out what that was,” says Gabby. “And then I became more accepting.”
So she went to see a gynaecologist and found out she only had a handful of periods left. She was quite chuffed that the tampons and towels section of her life was done with. “I didn’t have an emotional attachment to my period. A lot of women feel bereft, but I had IVF and complications getting pregnant – I felt like my period hasn’t always helped me out. I didn’t mind seeing it go.”
As well as going on bioidentical hormones, there are lifestyle changes that have helped to ease her symptoms. “I do weights and some cardio, loads of Pilates and walking,” she says. “A mixture of things make me feel good, so my body can still move in the way I want to. I’ve always eaten well, but I’m making sure I’m nourishing myself and drinking plenty of water and less alcohol. I take Menopace Max supplements – they’ve helped.”
If there’s anything she would like women experiencing the menopause to know, it’s that talking about it, hearing about it and knowing what it can encompass really helps.
“Hearing people talk about it is really comforting,” she says. “Previously it has been on a need-to-know basis. There was a feeling that
if you were admitting symptoms, you were letting it beat you, like a weakness, but talking is a strength.”
Her openness continued at home, where she says it was a relief to explain her short fuse to her ex-rugby player husband Kenny and their 17-year-old twins, Lois and Reuben. “Shouting doesn’t get you anywhere. You just feel horrible afterwards,” she says. “It was nice to talk because then they could see that my sudden changes weren’t their fault.”
Opening up about her symptoms at work was a little stressful. “I was a bit nervous about admitting I’d seen a doctor, like it puts me in an age bracket. Then I had Penny Lancaster on my podcast talking about throwing Rod Stewart’s chicken pie against the wall because she was so angry and I was like, ‘What am I worried about?’
Gabby turns 50 on 24 April and she’s viewing the milestone with typical optimism. “I’m excited about 50 actually,” she says. “It feels way bigger than 40. In sport, you get a cap on your 50th, so it feels significant. I like getting older – I really like some of the stuff that comes with it. But my children leaving home is quite scary.
“My son’s going to leave in a few months and I’m going to miss him massively. But suddenly, there’s freedom. We’re going away
at Easter – my daughter is staying at home with a boyfriend. And we don’t have to organise childcare."
“And they can drive now,” she adds. “The other night I was on the way back from work and my daughter called and said, ‘We’ve got no milk.’ I said, ‘So get in your car and go buy some.’ And she went, ‘Oh, OK. Yeah.’”
“It changes your possibilities. I feel like I’m getting my second wind. I don’t want to feel like, ‘Oh well, that’s me now – I’m washed up. Exit stage left.’ Getting older is a privilege, so embrace it.”
We’re curious about that privilege, especially in showbiz, where women are frequently seen as having a shelf life. Part of it, Gabby says, is down to confidence. “Genuine confidence gets more nourished as you get older,” she says. “There are times in your youth when you’re winging it and posturing. I was confident, but not quite as confident as it might have appeared.”
Much of the push and pull of her thirties and forties, juggling a career and young family, has dropped away as well. “I don’t have that same guilt that I was always trying to suppress as a working mum – always feeling I should be somewhere else. Now I get a feeling of, ‘No, I’m in the right place. This is where I should be.’ Which is nice.”
Gabby Logan is the ambassador for Vitabiotics Menopace, the UK’s no1 supplement for before, during and after the menopause. Gabby takes Menopace Max, £24.95 at menopace.com and Boots
