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Jenny Eclair says the menopause left her unable to cope

Comedian and former Loose Women star Jenny Eclair has revealed that the menopause left her with 'an inability to cope' and 'total lack of confidence' — but is now feeling back on track thanks to her own personal 'miracle.'

Speaking on White Wine Question Time, the 61-year-old described how she particularly struggled with the mental side of her menopause symptoms — most notably crippling anxiety.

'It wasn't so much about the physical sides of the menopause, which some people suffer from terribly badly,' she explained to podcast host Kate Thornton.

'My big problem was emotional, and it hit me at about the age of 52 when other things are hitting you anyway. For me, it was anxiety and weepiness, and just an inability to cope and feeling very self-conscious, and total lack of confidence.

And that's not really like me.'

Having recently written about her experience of the menopause in new book Older and Wider: A Survivor’s Guide to the Menopause, she told Thornton that her confidence was severely knocked during this time, often referring to herself as ‘dull’ and ‘boring.' She also revealed the moment that things came to a head at the Melbourne Comedy Festival: 'I was on the floor, at the prospect of getting up on stage in Australia and doing the show that I'd done in the UK, and knew and loved - a pretty good show.' 

This was the moment, the comedian revealed, that persuaded her to start taking Hormone Replacement Therapy (HRT), which kicked in just a few days later and enabled her to cope with this challenging stage of life once more.

'I wasn't sure whether I was going to take it because a lot of people are very anti-HRT,' she explained to Thornton. 'If you listen to both sides of the argument, it is quite easy to be put off but I listened to more arguments from the pro-HRT side, and I'm very pro of it. For me personally, it's been a miracle.'

Eclair — who presents a podcast about living through the menopause and perimenopause called Older and Wiser — ponders the timing of the perimenopause, which tends to hit women during a typically challenging time in their lives anyway.

'This is what's interesting about the menopause — peri and beyond — is that it hits you at a time in life when it's the perfect storm, when everything is hitting the fan.

'Your parents are ageing, falling to pieces, dying in some cases, and your children are leaving home. We know work can be very difficult for women in their 50s. You can suddenly start being completely dropped off the list, all those lists that you used to be on for potential jobs… And so, it comes at a time when your defences are pretty low anyway.'

However, she did emphasise that, no matter how hard the prospect of menopause may seem, it isn't the end of the world.

'The good bit is it doesn't kill you!' Eclair laughed. 'I don't think there are any cases of the menopause actually killing you and we all know what doesn't kill you makes you stronger, so you know, you will come through it.'

Reference: Microsoft News: Sarah Ilston  2 days ago

 South Africa variant can 'break through' Pfizer's vaccine

The coronavirus variant discovered in South Africa can "break through" Pfizer's Covid-19 vaccine to some extent, a real-world data study in Israel found, though its prevalence in the country is low and the research has not been peer reviewed.

The study, released on Saturday, compared almost 400 people who had tested positive for Covid-19, 14 days or more after they received one or two doses of the vaccine, against the same number of unvaccinated patients with the disease. It matched age and gender, among other characteristics.

The South African variant, B.1.351, was found to make up about 1 per cent of all the Covid-19 cases across all the people studied, according to the study by Tel Aviv University and Israel's largest healthcare provider, Clalit.

The vaccine appeared to be less effective against the South African variant, researchers noted. Crucially, however, the study shows that the variant does not spread effectively, they say.

It is believed that this reduced effectiveness may also only occur in a short window of time. Results from the study showed that there were no reported cases of B.1.351 in fully vaccinated individuals who had received their second dose more then 14-days prior.

Reference: The Telegraph: Jordan Kelly-Linden, Global Health Security Team  1 day ago

Woman can’t stop telling her husband about her good-looking nurse after waking up from anesthesia

A woman awoke from anesthesia - and couldn’t stop telling her husband about her attractive nurse.

The video, which was captioned, ‘Remembering the time I woke up from anesthesia and told my husband all about my attractive nurse Ryan,’ started with her looking at the camera, smirking and reminiscing on the event. It flips to footage of her in the hospital.

This hilarious exchange has been viewed over 2.2 million times on TikTok, with many people seeing the bright side to the situation. Of course, some felt bad for her husband Brandon because she talked about finding other men attractive.

But for clarification, Kelly shared another clip in which she was praising her husband.

In the clip, Brandon asked her if she finds him attractive. She said the following: "That’s why I married you. I think you’re so good-looking."

"Is that the only reason you married me?" Brandon said.

Moving around in her hospital bed, Kelli responds: "Nooo, a lot of reasons, but I also think you’re so good-looking. I like to have you pressed against me when you’re not wearing a shirt." 

Kelly also talked about her newfound wish to star in Grey’s Anatomy in a third clip.

"I really wanna be in a medical show. I felt that in there. Do they film that in Portland?” She said ."I wanna be the medical person. I feel like I’d do a good job."

After getting a little worried about the thing in her harm, she wondered, she continues: "I don’t know if Grey’s Anatomy is still going. I wanna be in it, as the patient, you know?

"I wanna be in it as a day player, just like the patient that comes in, and he saves her."

Although the dream of being on Grey’s Anatomy never manifested into something more for Kelly, she is now a viral TikTok. 

Three fully vaccinated people in Michigan DIED after contracting COVID

At least 246 people in Michigan who were fully immunized against COVID-19, tested positive for the virus, have tested positive for coronavirus and three have died.  

No identifying information was available for the three people who died except that they were aged 65 or older. 

This makes Michigan among the first states to report 'breakthrough cases,' which occur when people test positive for the virus at least 14 days after receiving their final dose of the vaccine.

All the vaccines approved for emergency use authorizations - Pfizer-BioNTech, Moderna and Johnson & Johnson - are between 72 and 95 percent effective.

This means between five and 28 percent of people get vaccinated may still get sick, which officials say is serious but not surprising.

They say it also underscores the fact that masks and other public health measures are needed until enough of the population is vaccined to reach herd immunity.  

So far, about 2.95 million residents, about 36.5 percent of the state's population, have received at least one dose and 1.8 million Michiganders are fully vaccinated.  

'While it is significantly less likely, it is still possible to contract the virus after being vaccinated,' Lynn Sutfin, a spokeswoman for the Michigan Department of Health and Human Services told The Destroit New.

'Studies indicate that even if vaccinated people do become ill, they are far less likely to experience severe illness requiring hospitalization or resulting in death. 

Sutfin said the cases were reported between January 1 and March 31.

'Some of these individuals may ultimately be excluded from this list due to continuing to test positive from a recent infection prior to being fully vaccinated,' she said.

'These cases are undergoing further review to determine if they meet other CDC criteria for determination of potential breakthrough, including the absence of a positive antigen or PCR test less than 45 days prior to the post-vaccination positive test. 

'In general, these persons have been more likely to be asymptomatic or mildly symptomatic compared with vaccinated persons.'

According to the department, 11 people of the 246 breakthrough cases tested positive.

Sutfin says all three people who died were were 65 years or older and two of three had had their final dose within three weeks of their death. 

'While the majority of the population develops full immunity within 14 days of completion of their vaccine series, a small proportion appear to take longer to mount a full antibody response,' she said.

'CDC is actively working to better understand the risk characteristics of this group

The news comes as Michigan reported a record number of coronavirus cases.

Officials recorded 11,082 COVID-19 cases, which surpasses the previous daily high k of 10,140 hit on November 20 and bringing the total case load to 779,974.

This makes The Great Lake State the only state to report more than 7,000 new infections on Monday. 

In addition, the seven-day rolling average has sky-rocketed from about 1,800 new infections per day to over 6,700 cases a day.

Last week, Whitmer announced she was doubling the state's vaccination goal from administering 50,000 shots every to 100,000 per day.  

An average of about three million adults are being vaccinated every day, with single-day totals reaching four million over the weekend.

It comes as President Joe Biden is set to announce Tuesday that he is updating the deadline for states to make all adults eligible for coronavirus vaccines to April 19, two weeks earlier than the original May 1 deadline.

'We are still very much in this pandemic, but we've learned a tremendous amount about how to protect ourselves and our loved ones,' Sutfin said, according to the Detroit Free Press. 

'That's why every Michigander has a personal responsibility to do their part by wearing a mask, washing hands, and maintaining social distancing to help us slow the spread of this virus.