NADIA SAWALHA ‘Who knew even your belly button sags!’

Loose Women panellist Nadia Sawalha didn’t hold back recently, as she described the devastating effects of her menopause.

The 52-year-old said, ‘It’s like stepping on to a really safe zebra crossing where there’s nothing in sight, then being hit by a train. Grey hair; saggy, itchy skin; premenstrual tension on a stratospheric level.’ And she wasn’t done there. She continued, in her usual vein of tragi-comedy, ‘You put on weight. Thinning bones. Balding nun. A nun that now needs a combover. Donald Trump nun. I didn’t even know that belly buttons could sag. Memory loss. Bleeding gums. It’s basically like decomposing but walking around suffering.’

Back in May, an emotional Nadia admitted in a candid video that the thick curly hair she’s famed for isn’t her own these days, saying, ‘People ask me most about how I have such “gorgeous, glorious, wonderful” natural curls,’ before adding. ‘They’re fake… when I started going through perimenopause, I think I lost a third of my hair.’

Nadia spoke exclusively to best about the menopause earlier this year and how it can cause a strain on your marriage. She said she’d scream at her poor hubby, Mark, who ‘didn’t know whether I was smiling, wanted sex, or was going to hit him in the face. It was full-on!

‘Sometimes I’d look at him and I couldn’t even remember his name! He didn’t know if he was coming or going, poor thing. And I would actually announce I felt hormonal, that I needed to be with women. It wasn’t fair but how could he possibly know what it feels like?’ Thankfully, Nadia is feeling ‘fantastic’ now. Phew!