BBC Breakfast presenter Louise Minchin, 50, recently opened up about her menopausal symptoms in a documentary with the BBC.
But, ahead of speaking out about going through the process, the journalist tried to keep her symptoms a secret at work.
Dan Walker’s co-star admitted she was “too embarrassed” to tell anyone about the menopause at first, but eventually told her boss when symptoms worsened.
In her own column with I news, she said: “It was particularly challenging at work.
“Although adrenaline cleared my brain-fog when I was presenting, suddenly getting hot from top to toe under the lights in front of six million viewers was difficult to cover up.
“I tried for months though, too embarrassed to say to anyone what was going on, and ended up negotiating with the team on a daily basis over the temperature in the studio.
“One day it got too much, and I had to confess to my boss the real reason why I needed it to be cold: I was menopausal, and suffering with it.”
After telling her boss what she is going though, Louise went on to say she now has her own setting on the studio’s air conditioning to make the room cooler.
“I am so glad I did it; it was as if a dark cloud had been lifted,” she added.
“I was taken very seriously and greeted with huge sympathy, and since then we have a Louise setting on the thermometer.”
Back in May, Louise spoke out about living with menopause for the first time.
The mother-of-two admitted she was taken aback when realising she had started the process at just 47-years-old.
Within the BBC segment, she said: “Noticeable symptoms would be waking up at night as if I’d been running a marathon in a tropical rainforest. I mean, hot beyond belief.”
She continued: “It was a GP friend of mine who said ‘actually do you know this could be the onset of menopause, have you thought about that.
“And I was taken aback, I thought ‘I’m 47!’”.
Louise went on to say the worst part of the process was not being able to feel herself.
“I think what’s upsetting about it is I don’t feel all the time, like myself,” she added.
“I feel like this kind of anxious, worried, sometimes quite low version of myself.
“That is not the person I used to be, or I am normally.”
Despite going through the menopause process, Louise recently took part in the Norseman triathlon earlier this month.
To raise money for mental health charity Mind, Louise completed a 2.5-mile swim, a 112-mile bike ride, followed by a marathon.
Speaking after the challenge, Louise Minchin said she felt “less vulnerable” after throwing herself back into her exercise.
In her column with The Times, she said: “My last few years of constant exercise have changed me physically and mentally.
“I am fitter, stronger and more resilient than I was in my twenties, thirties or early forties — and I am finally proud of my muscly shoulders.
“It has also helped me feel happier, less vulnerable and to be a better version of myself while going through a tricky menopause.”
BBC Breakfast continues tomorrow at 6am on BBC One.
