Baroness Karren Brady has opened up about her menopause symptoms, revealing that she experienced "horrific" night sweats before using HRT.
The Apprentice star appeared on Loose Women on Wednesday to talk about how the menopause is affecting women in the workplace and female-led businesses.
"As women, we need allies, we need empathy, we need understanding. We need people to know what we're going through so they can expect different things from us during the different stages of our lives" she told panellists Christine Lampard, Dame Kelly Holmes, Jane Moore and Sophie Morgan.
"It's really important that we educate people, particularly our male colleagues so they become our allies and then we can bring our whole selves to work."
She added: "[So] people understand we are going to have different emotions because our hormones are changing."
© Ken McKay/ITV/ShutterstockDetailing her own symptoms, Karen said: "It crept on me quite slowly, I started with the night sweats, which is horrific. You wake up and you are literally drenched.
She continued: "Then you start finding your patience is getting thinner and you're getting a little bit more angry and lots of things bother you that didn't before."
When asked how she knew that she was menopausal, the businesswoman revealed that it was one of her famous friends who pointed it out. "I think it's a combination of things," the 54-year-old revealed. "Then you're in a bit of a slump and you can't really be bothered to do anything.
"It's when those things start to accumulate that you begin to realise that actually, you are going through the menopause. It was Davina McCall who said to me, 'You're going through the menopause, get on the HRT'.
"Of course I did and it completely reversed my symptoms. It doesn't work for everybody but it worked for me."
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Whilst on the show, Karren also revealed the staggering research conducted by insurance providers Simply Business, who surveyed 900 female business owners.
© Photo: BBCThe company, of which Karren is an ambassador, found that a quarter lost money whilst going through the menopause, whilst ten per cent were forced to close their businesses altogether.
"The symptoms, the difficulties getting people to understand it, the expressions of sympathy and understanding of what you're going through just wasn't there for them," she said.
In a statement shared by Simply Business at the time of the survey's release, Karen shared her thoughts. "No woman should feel they have no choice but to close their business because of their menopause symptoms," she said in a statement. "I've been quite lucky as my menopause journey has been milder compared to some, but I've suffered from hot flushes, lack of sleep, and occasional forgetfulness."
