Carol Vorderman has confessed the depression caused by the menopause left her feeling suicidal.
Lorraine Kelly with Carol Vorderman on Lorraine
The former 'Countdown' star revealed she didn't have the same menopause symptoms as other women and thought she was just getting over it and powering on by doing other projects including building houses and flying a plane but then the depression hit her.
But Carol then developed severe depression and the "blackness" that surrounded her made her contemplate taking her own life, but she was able to pull herself back from the brink by thinking of her two children Katie and Cameron.
Speaking on 'Lorraine' on Wednesday (10.05.017), the 56-year-old beauty said: "This was a blackness where I would wake up and I would feel I don't see the point in carrying on. There was no reason to feel that way. Nothing else was going wrong. I am a very lucky women.
"The only reason I didn't do anything is because I have two children. I would lie there for weeks and I would just want this feeling to stop and would do anything to make it stop. If it wasn't for my children I suspect we wouldn't be talking today. I was in the blackest black."
Carol was able to pinpoint what was making her feel so low when she inspected her electronic calendar and noticed she was really low for two weeks of every month and realised it had something to do with her menstrual cycle.
Speaking to host Lorraine Kelly, she said: "I booked to see a professor who deals with hormones and he gave me these gels which you put on your arm every day. From the moment I took them I never felt that way again. I still get angry and upset but there's a reason for all those things but there wasn't before."
Carol - who took part in the last series of 'I'm A Celebrity... Get Me Outta Here!' - admits her honesty about her menopause has resulted in her receiving countless letters from mothers and daughters thanking her for sharing her story.
She said: "It's so important we do talk about it. I really feel for women who are going through it. This was just an hormonal unbalance. We should be talking about it. People need to get help. I wonder whether men go through the same thing."
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