Tina Arena: Menopause was 'brutal'

In a rare interview, Tina Arena has opened up about her experience of going through menopause, and how hard it was to realise she could never have another child.

“Nobody talks about menopause, nobody prepares a woman for it, what it does to her body, what it can do to her relationship, everything. Our mothers don’t really talk to us about it, but it is important. It’s a turning point in a woman’s life. A woman changes, her body stops producing oestrogen which has huge knock-on effects," she told the Sunday Telegraph.

Menopause was 'brutal', Tina Arena says. Source: Getty

And she says she has struggled to push through without resorting to medication or hormone replacement.

“I’ve had good days and I’ve had sh''t days," Tina admitted.

"Some women cannot go through menopause without medical assistance, that’s totally their choice. I just chose to go ‘Nup, I’m going to ride the sweats through, I’m going to ride when I don’t want to see anybody through’. It’s character building. I don’t want to take medication to help me through. I don’t know the side effects.”

Tina and her partner Vincent Mancina have one child – their son Gabriel, 12. Menopause forced her to acknowledge that he would be her only baby.

“When you go through menopause you realise the reproduction is over, that’s it, the machine’s broken down," She said. Then you have that reality ‘Oh, I can no longer produce’. That was confronting. There was a transitional period. I got over it, but it was pretty brutal."

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