Are you honest about your hormones?

PENNY Lancaster has revealed how she had a ‘panic attack-type meltdown’ during the lockdown, due to the menopause. Are you honest about your hormones with your loved ones?

Penny Lancaster has been upfront and honest in a recent interview discussing her weight gain, hormones, and how like the rest of us during a hormone surge threw a chicken pie across the kitchen.

Having recently confessed that she indulged a little too much during lockdown, Penny, 49, has shared more about how she struggled through the pandemic with her ongoing menopause.

Speaking to UK press she explained, ‘I had a panic attack-type of a meltdown, during the lockdown. Usually, I have a good threshold when it comes to being patient with people. That went out the window. I wasn’t in control and I just broke.’

Penny who is a mother to sons Alastair, 14, and Aiden, nine, who she shares with husband Rod Stewart, 75  continued, ‘The kids were arguing. I’d done these individual chicken pies and one of them got thrown across the kitchen. I screamed, then I cried. The boys came running over to comfort me and I had to apologise.

I’ve had to explain to Rod and the boys that sometimes I might get angry and cry because my hormones are changing so much.’

Penny piled on the pounds during the summer, admitting that she was trying to raise spirits while the family was in lockdown, having themed dinners and drinking wine, tequila, and cocktails to ‘have something to look forward to’.

Penny spoke of to trying to create a ‘stay-cation’ type atmosphere, but that she was simply being ‘greedy and indulgent’.

Penny drank throughout the day, starting at lunchtime, and admitted that the weight ‘crept up’. She also admitted it was a way to deal with anxiety over the global health crisis.

Posting the before and after pictures on Instagram, she wrote: ‘During the lockdown, I found myself entering my menopause and the side effects were exaggerated by the anxiety and fear for the virus and the unknown.

‘I turned to food and drink as comfort and gained over a stone. As a wake-up call, I shamed myself by taking a photo. It worked and with a new diet and exercise, I lost 17lb and 4in off my waist in eight weeks!’

The TV star admitted she has found the past few months extra tough because of her symptoms, but gushed that her husband and sons have been very understanding.

She added: ‘Rod and I have a very close and intimate, open relationship about all sorts of things.

 ‘I talk to him about how I’m feeling in the lead up to my period, feeling a little down or sad or… I always say, “Darling give me space today, it’s the time of the month.”

How honest are you with your family about your hormones? I think we need a little more understanding in society, especially given the extra stress we face as women to maintain our homes, feed our families, and keep spirits high during these uncertain times.