Martine McCutcheon: ‘Perimenopause makes you feel like you’ve lost your own damn mind’

Martine McCutcheon says perimenopause makes her feel like she’s “lost” her “damn mind”.

The former ‘EastEnders’ star added she thought she would cope fine with the development due to her various health conditions including fibromyalgia and M.E, but she is struggling with anxiety and a “list” of symptoms such as “the hot flushes, the insomnia, the brain fog and the fatigue”.

The 46-year-old actress captioned a selfie on Instagram: "Peri menopause symptoms... Such Fun! (laughing face emoji) (head exploding emoji) (monkey covering eyes emoji.)

“I have the hot flushes, the insomnia, the brain fog and fatigue... The list goes on doesn’t it?!

"And to be honest, having lived with M.E/CFS and fibro since my 20’s, those symptoms seem to be something I can cope with... (touch wood!) (praying hands emoji.)

"However, what I’ve personally not heard mentioned as much, is the crippling anxiety you can get with the peri menopause. A kind of irrational anxiety that makes no sense whatsoever!

"You feel like you’ve lost your own damn mind! Maybe it’s just me, but I don’t seem to hear about this side of it as much."

Martine continued: "I wanted to share this, just in case any of you out there feel the same and feel scared or worried - You aren’t alone!

"I’m pleased to report after going through a phase of not even feeling confident enough to drive (That’s SO not me!) that I’m now feeling much better and I’m working my way back to my own “normality.”

The ‘Love, Actually’ actress - who has son Rafferty, eight, with her singer husband Jack McManus, 38 - recently defended the 2003 Richard Curtis rom-com – in which her character Natalie has an affair with the Prime Minister, played by Hugh Grant – against “fat shaming” allegations.

She told the Daily Mirror: “First of all, it’s another woman (Annie) that mentions Natalie's weight and Natalie herself. Of course, it's easy to say now: ‘We would have done this, we would have done that,’ but I also think that the characters weren’t being PC.

“They weren’t perfect humans – they were talking about their insecurities, their affairs. Natalie, bless her, is so innocent in telling the prime minister about her insecurities. I think that's part of what made it so charming and real.

“There are a lot of things that you're not allowed to say now, but I think that in a film that covers so much emotion and so much love, you need a little bit of reality in there – it's not always about ticking all the boxes.”