TV’s Loose Woman: Give us ‘M’ badges ... so everyone knows we’re menopausal!
BEING stuck on a stuffy bus or train is bad enough at the best of times.
But for women going through the menopause, hot flushes can turn the journey into an incredibly uncomfortable experience.
Now daytime TV star Andrea McLean has called for those going through the change to wear badges on public transport – so other passengers ‘cut them some slack’.
The 48-year- old Loose Women host said other commuters would better understand why they wanted to open a window in the depths of winter.
She suggested menopausal women could wear pins marked ‘M’ or ‘ hot flush’ in the same way pregnant women can have ones saying ‘baby on board’. Miss McLean, who had her first hot flush at 37 and is still battling symptoms of the menopause more than a decade later, said: ‘By the time you are where I am it [the menopause] is so natural, it just seems something that is as natural as pregnancy.
‘Women wear badges now on the train that say baby on board and people let them have a seat.
‘Nobody bats an eyelid and says, “Oh my God that’s horrendous, she’s got a baby in there – that’s so gross”.’
Asked if she thinks women should wear badges that say they’re going through the menopause, she said: ‘Yes, big “M” badges, or “hot flush”.’
The mother- of-two said the public might be more understanding if they know women were going through hormonal changes. She said: ‘I commute every day – and all through winter when it’s been really cold women get on the train and they’re leaning over, opening windows and you can see people going, “What the hell, it’s snowing outside, what are you doing?”
‘I know what they’re doing, I know what they’re going through, but if there was more knowledge out there I think male commuters would say, “OK, it’s fine, she’s burning up like a furnace, let her open the window, cut her a bit of slack”.’
Miss McLean, who presents the live ITV lunchtime show, had a hysterectomy in 2016 after discovering she had endometriosis.
The condition causes tissue lining the uterus to spread elsewhere.
She said she would sweat so profusely when having a hot flush she would use sanitary products to stop herself getting sweat patches on TV.
‘I would literally be sitting in a TV studio with sweat running down my back while interviewing A-list stars, trying to hold it all together with... seven cameras, a studio audience, plus loads of people watching at home’, she said. ‘My whole body, my scalp, was absolutely soaked. I had pads under each arm. And it was a game-changer because it meant I wasn’t panicking about getting sweat marks, because people are horrible.’
The former model has teamed up with clothing company Become to create underwear for women going through the menopause.
‘Cut her a bit of slack’