Hollyoaks’ Stephanie Waring breaks down admitting shock diagnosis that felt like bugs were crawling all over her
IT’S rare to see a photo of Hollyoaks star Stephanie Waring without her winning smile.
But away from playing Cindy Cunningham on the Channel 4 soap, she has had a year from hell — so crippled by insomnia, anxiety and raging mood swings she was left fearing for her future.
In an emotional chat Steph, 45, broke down as she recalled her struggles since being diagnosed as perimenopausal in 2021.
She said: “I was crying all the time. I came home one day and my partner was out and my kids, Mia, who’s 17, and Lexi, who is 12, were with their dad.
“And I just remember being on the bathroom floor screaming and begging someone to help me.
"The doctors were saying they couldn’t do anything at that point and I couldn’t cope any more.
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“I didn’t want to harm myself but I just remember thinking maybe not being here would be the only way to make it stop.”
Stephanie is speaking out to prevent other women suffering as she did due to lack of awareness around the condition and the taboo surrounding menopause.
She said: “I got the first symptoms around the same time I got into a relationship with my now-fiancé Tom Brookes, who is a security consultant, in December 2020.
“It should’ve been a really happy time but I was going into the other bedroom at night because I couldn’t sleep.
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“Nearly every night for a whole year I’d be awake until around 3am. Nothing I did helped. I was suffering from brain fog and I was just exhausted all of the time.
“My vision also started to go and that’s when I thought, ‘Something’s not right here’.”
Steph finally saw her GP two months after first experiencing problems and had blood tests, believing they would probably reveal she had anaemia, a severe iron deficiency.
After eight months her doctor suggested having her hormones checked and that is when she was diagnosed as perimenopausal.
Steph continued: “All I heard was the word ‘menopause’ of course.
"I lost my s**t a little bit because I thought it was something that would happen to me in my 60s.
“I’d just got into a new relationship, I’d finally found the love of my life and we’d discussed having children. I felt robbed.”
But things were about to get a whole lot worse for Steph.
She was initially refused hormones, being told she would need to go without for a year in order to start treatment.
But after Steph told her doctor she could not stand it any more, they agreed to start treatment.
She said: “I was thinking, ‘Oh, thank God, I’ll finally be able to sleep, this is going to fix everything’.”
Steph was advised she had a number of HRT, (hormone replacement therapy) options, including patches.
But she was eventually given a Mirena coil, which releases progesterone, and an oestrogen gel, which is applied to the skin.
But relief did not come, and suddenly Steph found herself experiencing furious mood swings, which caused problems in her relationship.
She said: “I was explosive. I’d never been like it before but I would see the red mist over the smallest things.
“I honestly don’t know how Tom put up with me. Now he calls the coil the devil.”
At a loss for what to do next, Steph saw a specialist recommended by her former Hollyoaks co-star, Loose Women's Denise Welch, and she was advised to increase her oestrogen gel dose.
But nothing seemed to work.
She said: “My anxiety was through the roof, sleep never came and I started to experience this itching sensation all over my skin.
"It would jump from place to place and it felt like I had bugs crawling all over me.
“It’s called pruritus and it was the most debilitating thing.
“I went to see another specialist and once again, I was told to up my oestrogen.
"I also had my Mirena coil removed because we thought it was causing the problems.
“The itching and my other symptoms got so much worse that I couldn’t even sit on the sofa. I was just twitching constantly.”
Fighting back tears, Steph continued: “This is the hard bit.
"I just remember being on the bathroom floor one night, screaming and begging someone to help me.
“From the outside I had this perfect life, with this amazing job on TV, but at that point I would have given any of it up to feel normal again.”
Steph eventually gathered the strength to pull herself up and drive to the doctor’s surgery, where she begged for help.
She was tested for a variety of things, but the doctors were still stumped and she ended up taking matters into her own hands and reducing her oestrogen — but with no effect.
It culminated in the actress breaking down on the set of Hollyoaks and starting counselling.
She said: “Everyone at Hollyoaks is offered counselling free of charge and our schedules are reviewed on an individual basis.
“While I had the full support of my bosses and carried on working, during filming I could just feel the constant itching and people were asking if I was OK and I was saying, ‘No, I’m not, I’m not OK’.
“I just didn’t know what to do at that point. I was wondering if that was going to be me for ever.”
Then Steph was thrown a lifeline.
She said: “The first assistant director, Jo, took me into a room and asked me what was going on.
“I told her it was my hormones and explained what had been happening.
"She then told me about a specialist she knew called Dr Michael Barnish, and together they may have saved my life.
"After a second consultation I was finally diagnosed with oestrogen dominance.” This is when, during perimenopause, progesterone levels fall faster which can cause oestrogen to be dominant.
Stephanie continues: “I basically had this soup of oestrogen running around my body that had set off my mast histamine cells.
"So I was giving myself more oestrogen and my progesterone wasn’t having a chance to clear it all — that’s what it does, it clears all your mast cells.
"So me being constantly told to up my dosage was causing the problems.
“I should’ve been given a very low dose of oestrogen and monitored closely.
"The dosage should only have been increased if I began to experience other menopause symptoms along with the lack of sleep.
“The higher dosage caused me to have symptoms I would never have experienced otherwise.”
Steph is no longer on oestrogen and has just started a low dose of progesterone and she wants to raise awareness of the fact HRT can affect women differently.
She said: “It’s a minefield and it’s not one size fits all.
“You need to have guidance, you need to be monitored regularly and it needs to be tailored to you.
“Younger women like myself have no idea what’s going on because there’s so little discussion around perimenopause.”
Steph, who now feels better than ever, added: “I don’t even feel like I’m going through the menopause.
“I definitely am and my periods only come once every couple of months.
"I’m taking supplements, I’ve found a good and balanced diet and I think exercise is so important.
“There are so many things you can do to help yourself before you go slapping hormone gel or patches on.
"Of course, these are sometimes completely necessary but they need to be used with caution.
“The wrong medication sent me to the lowest low of my life and I feel so lucky to finally have come through the other side.
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“I was so privileged to be able to find help when I was at that point but others might not be so lucky.
“Everyone needs to realise that treatment for menopause isn’t one size fits all and I hope that my story can help even just one person not go through the hell I did.”
