Talking menopause with EastEnders actress Tamzin Outhwaite
Actress Tamzin Outhwaite is not afraid to talk about the big M — the menopause period of a woman’s life and the issues that come along with it. The 51-year-old former EastEnders star jetted into the capital recently for a frank discussion on the subject called Menopause and Me with Tamzin Outhwaite, hosted by the Meno Active supplement brand.
The aim of the event was to raise awareness and encourage attendees to join the conversation and talk freely about their own experiences of perimenopause and menopause.
Taking time minutes to talk to Magazine, Tamzin detailed some of the things she’s experienced since realising she was in the perimenopause stage, which came to her during the lockdown.
‘I first realised I was entering the menopause stage of my life was when I was filming Dun Breeding in lockdown, but I didn’t identify it as menopause because I kept thinking that it was basically all the symptoms of feeling low due to lockdown,’ she says.
‘I was anxious because of Covid. I’d put on weight because of being in lockdown and I was feeling low because of lockdown. What actually transpired was that I was going through perimenopause at that time. So it did feel quite sudden, but the realisation of what it was, was much more gradual.’ The symptoms Tamzin noticed first were some common ones. She explained: ‘I never
had the hot flushes. I did get a bit foggy in my brain and I got extremely tired, plus low energy and weight gain was a big thing for me at that time.
‘My mom said that she just got a bit hot one afternoon. I don’t think she really noticed her menopause, they were kind of conditioned to just get on with everything.
So it wasn’t something that I really was aware of.’
To counter these symptoms Tamzin has created her own programme. ‘I have started taking a very small amount of HRT, one pump plus progesterone, I’m not on testosterone, but I am still perimenopausal, and I’m also obviously taking Meno Active which has 31 active ingredients. So I’m doing an awful lot of natural things, I take some CBD oil and I try to get my energy levels up by using cold therapy plus lots of walking, some yoga and meditation.’
Menopause is a hot topic in general, and in beauty with many skincare lines launching products. I asked Tamzin if she thought this
NEW STAGE OF LIFE:
Actress Tamzin Outhwaite tackles the menopause was a positive thing. ‘Absolutely. All women will go through it at some point. How it affects you is completely different. But I definitely feel like I have a stronger bond with other women going through it.’