‘You don’t ever need to become old’: Davina McCall, 54, reveals she stays out partying with pals until 2am after ageing gave her a ‘new lease of life’
- Davina McCall is experiencing a ‘second spring’ after the changing responsibilities that have come with getting older have enabled her to go out with her friends into the small hours once again
- The television presenter, 54, has spoken openly about ageing and going through the menopause, and she says as her children Holly, 21, Tilly, 19, and Chester, 16, get older, she has been able to get back in touch with her more youthful side
- She told woman&home : ‘So many of my friends are going out dancing again. I used to, maybe once a year, but now I go out a lot and get home at 2am’
Davina McCall is experiencing a ‘second spring’ after the changing responsibilities that have come with getting older have enabled her to go out with her friends into the small hours once again.
The television presenter, 54, has spoken openly about ageing and going through the menopause, and she says as her children Holly, 21, Tilly, 19, and Chester, 16, get older, she has been able to get back in touch with her more youthful side.
She told woman&home: ‘So many of my friends are going out dancing again. I used to, maybe once a year, but now I go out a lot and get home at 2am.
Living it up: Davina McCall, 54, is experiencing a ‘second spring’ after the changing responsibilities of getting older have enabled her to go out with friends into the small hours
‘I can sleep until 10am because my kids sleep until midday, and I enjoy it.
‘It’s like being given a new lease of life. The Chinese call it the second spring and that’s a really nice concept. You don’t ever need to become old.
‘I think there’s been a shift in expectations from society about women of a certain age. There is no “certain” age any more. We can do whatever we want.’
Speaking out: The television presenter has spoken openly about ageing and going through the menopause
Davina said the menopause was an amazing rebirth for her, adding ‘we all owe it to younger women to go out there and live our best lives’.
It comes after Davina opened up about feeling ‘unattractive’ while suffering from severe menopause symptoms.
The former Big Brother host, who now takes HRT to help manage her symptoms, recalled when she was suffering from night sweats, dry skin and brain fog and admitted she didn’t ‘feel sexy’ anymore.
Happy: She says as her children Holly, 21, Tilly, 19, and Chester, 16, get older, she has been able to get back in touch with her more youthful side
Davina, who was perimenopause at 44, spoke to The Sun’s Fabulous Magazine about how the changes to her body had an impact on her sex drive as she was constantly ‘exhausted’ from waking up in the night as a result of her symptoms.
Davina told the publication: ‘I lost something of myself. I changed. I couldn’t quite pinpoint how I’d changed, but I’d definitely changed. I didn’t feel myself.
‘I felt spectacularly unattractive during my sweaty nights and my sore, dry vagina and my dry skin — and my brain fog. None of this made me feel sexy.
Party: She told woman&home : ‘So many of my friends are going out dancing again. I used to, maybe once a year, but now I go out a lot and get home at 2am’
‘Being menopausal can be a very lonely place. You can start feeling like you are the only person in the world who feels this way, and that no one understands what you are going through.’
Davina explored the menopause in a documentary entitled Sex, Mind and the Menopause – the follow-up to her 2021 programme Sex, Myths and the Menopause.
The show further explored more of the burning issues raised in her first documentary – including menopause myths and the taboo around HRT.
Looking good: Davina spoke out as she posed for a stunning photoshoot for the November issue of woman&home magazine
Family affair: The presenter is mother to daughters Holly, 21, and Tilly, 19, and son Chester, 15, with her ex-husband Matthew Robertson, 53, who she divorced in 2017 (pictured 2018)
It also took a deeper look at whether women are being sidelined, sacked or forced to go part-time when hit by menopause symptoms at work.
Davina has vowed to ‘fight as long as she can’ for women to get Hormone Replacement Therapy (HRT) and the correct menopause care amid a major shortage issue in the UK.
The supply crisis has seen major shortages of some HRT products, which are used by approximately 1 million women in the UK, while a new survey reveals that women have been forced to leave their jobs after reaching the menopause.
The November issue of woman&home is on sale Thursday 29 September 2022.
And in an emotional interview, the presenter vowed to continue to stand up for menopausal and perimenopausal women, noting that ‘it’s the most important thing I’ll ever do’.
Speaking to the Mirror, Davina, has not shied away from discussing the menopause extensively in the past, explained: ‘I think this is going to be my life’s work now. It’s frustrating, but it feels like we’ve gone a long way in the last year in terms of public knowledge and willingness to do something about it.’
The publication reports that she then became emotional as she continued: ‘I’ll be doing this as long as it takes, I feel like it’s really important, I think it’s the most important thing I’ll ever do.’
The November issue of woman&home is on sale Thursday 29 September 2022.
WHAT IS THE MENOPAUSE AND HOW CAN YOU DELAY IT?
Menopause is defined as the changes a woman goes through just before and after she stops her periods and is no longer able to get pregnant naturally.
Some women go through this time with few, if any, symptoms, around 60 percent experience symptoms resulting in behavioural changes and one in four will suffer severely.
Common symptoms include hot flushes, night sweats, vaginal dryness leading to discomfort during sex, disrupted sleep, decreased sex drive, problems with memory and concentration and mood swings.
Last year, a fertility doctor revealed women can delay the menopause by up to 20 years with a 30-minute operation that tricks their biological clocks into thinking they are much younger than they are.
The surgical procedure, devised by the fertility expert who pioneered IVF, sees tissue from the ovaries, thawed, and then transplanted back into the armpit.
It also has the potential to extend fertility – though doctors say the aim is to postpone the menopause rather than give women the chance to have babies into their 60s.
Ovarian grafting, or ovarian tissue cyropreservation, involves taking healthy tissue from a woman’s ovaries to delay the onset of menopause.
The 30-minute operation, available privately in the UK, sees a surgeon take healthy cells from the woman’s ovary and freeze them in conditions of -150C.
Whenever the patient wants, they can be thawed and reinserted through the armpit.
When the ovarian tissue starts to function it produces hormones that prevent menopause from happening.
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