Steps star Claire Richards has revealed she is struggling with “horrendous” anxiety in the early stages of perimenopause.
The 45-year-old singer first spotted the signs while filming ITV’s The Masked Singer last October, when she suffered heart palpitations.
Speaking about it for the first time, Claire said: “This last year has been a weird one. I started getting perimenopause symptoms and I was like, ‘Hold on a second, I don’t like this’.
“When I was doing The Masked Singer, the anxiety was horrendous. I was having the worst palpitations, pounding through my neck. I didn’t feel I could give it my best at all.”
The star admitted that fear and denial prevented her from seeking treatment until the symptoms got so bad, she struggled to leave her Surrey home, which she shares with her husband Reece Hill and kids Charlie, 16, and Daisy, 13.
The star said: “You kind of feel like you’re shrivelling up from the inside out. It took me a long time to address it. It’s a milestone, isn’t it?
“I’m not an angry person at all, but you can feel it rising. My husband knows I’m going through something and he’s been really patient.”
Now Claire uses an HRT oestrogen spray to combat symptoms such as hot flushes and mood changes.
She praised TV presenter Davina McCall for driving menopause awareness and said that working on her new solo album, Euphoria – which features covers of female music icons who helped shape her career – had also helped give her back her identity.
She added: “I’m definitely feeling more like myself. It must be the HRT starting to work.”
- Euphoria is out on August 25
