Meg Matthews masturbates regularly to ease the side effects of going through the menopause.

Meg Matthews

Meg Matthews

The 51-year-old interior designer - the ex-wife of former Oasis guitarist Noel Gallagher - split up with her partner shortly after she found out she was going through the natural female ageing process, in which menstrual periods stop permanently, because she no longer wanted to have sex.

Although she had no desire to get jiggy in the bedroom, Meg has found that pleasuring herself has helped to ease her anxiety, give her a "spring" in her step and improve the general health of her vagina.

Speaking on 'Loose Women' on Friday (10.11.17), she explained: "I still haven't got much of a libido. I split up with my partner, the thought of having sex was not a big thing but they have said scientifically that the more you masturbate, the better you feel. It has worked for me. It puts a spring in your step, you can get quite dry in your vagina and it helps to make it more plump."

But Meg - who has 17-year-old daughter Anais with Noel, 50 - had a difficult journey before she was diagnosed with the menopause and was even told there was a possibility she was pregnant because of her unpredictable symptoms.

She shared: "Basically, it all came about when I woke up and I had this feeling of being quite low and then all this anxiety hit me. It was awful. I mean, I am a worrier, I get a bill and I'll look at it and my stomach will go into a knotted panic. I couldn't go out, I couldn't go out to buy a pint of milk because I had social anxiety so I lied - I even told people I had glandular fever. There was no obvious reasons for the anxiety. They thought I was pregnant ... I kept feeling nauseous, my boobs hurt and I couldn't walk to the bathroom because everything ached. I had this dry mouth thing, all these things. I thought I was going mad. Growing up, my periods were regular, I gave birth in 15 minutes and then I was hit with this and it hit me like a train. I went out there and I started to talk to other women ... everyone started opening up and talking about it. I went to the doctors and they gave me anti-depressants ... I didn't get hot flushes, I had the night sweats."

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