Ex-Emmerdale actress Natalie Anderson on exploring perimenopause in the new series of her podcast The Capsule In Conversation

The Yorkshire actress and presenter wants to make conversations about perimenopause - the transition period before menopause - more open and inform a younger audience.

Natalie, known for her previous role in Emmerdale as Alicia Metcalfe and more recently Lexi Calder in Hollyoaks, in 2016 started The Capsule - a “little box” of recommendations online that initially focused on fashion, beauty and lifestyle but has evolved into a brand that advocates for a balanced lifestyle that features content about wellbeing, mental health and self care.

Since 2019, on The Capsule In Conversation podcast she has interviewed the likes of the late Kay Mellor, Shirley Ballas, Denise Van Outen and many other women about their careers and a wide range of their personal issues.

In series seven, which starts on Sunday and runs to the end of November, she hopes that frankness about subjects such as perimenopause can allay the fears of her listeners. Bradford-born Natalie, who lives in Leeds with husband James Shepherd and 10-year-old son Freddie, says she wants to educate women that are in their early 30s because symptoms can actually start at around that age.

“We've got a bit of an agenda really that we want to get as much information out there as possible and have frank conversations so that women can make their own plans and that they don't feel nervous or like they're getting too old, because there's a massive stigma attached obviously, with menopause and perimenopause, that all of a sudden you're really old and that's not the case at all. It just happens to be a natural factor of life for women.”

She adds: “In the past, it's almost been like a secret club for women and the men can have a bit of a joke about it - ‘Oh, going through the change’ - and all this old fashioned, outdated terminology and narrative around that next phase of life.

“In pregnancy, people talk about postnatal depression or mental health…couples talk about it together, and it really should be approached in the same way (with menopause).

“This is something that is going to affect all of you - boys, sons of mothers - so we should all be definitely talking about it and there should be less comedy around it.

“That's something that really frustrates me is, the kind of old fashioned sentiment of making women feel silly or stupid. Mainly, I think, because men are out of the loop and develop their own club about it rather than it being as one with everybody chit-chatting about it together and how it affects their relationships.”

It is her hope that the same growth in public awareness over recent years about mental health issues such as depression or anxiety - the latter being something Natalie has opened up about having herself - can be achieved with the subject of menopause.

The first episode of series seven featured writer, presenter and entrepreneur Liz Earle and among those that Natalie will also talk to in the coming weeks are former Glamour editor Jo Elvin, Hullraisers actress Taj Atwal, Hollyoaks star Davinia Taylor and health experts from Nuffield.

One of the most rewarding parts has been feedback she has received. “That's the bit when I go through my DMs or we get emails and I start to cry my eyes out because you put so much work in and you want it to be valuable to somebody.”

Natalie, 40, highlights an episode themed around last year’s Baby Loss Awareness Week in which she spoke about her own experience of having a miscarriage in 2010.

“It moved me a lot in the sense that we'd been able to offer some kind of help and support to other women who were either recently going through it or had gone through it many years ago and didn't feel like they could be upset, but the things that we covered within that episode allowed them to really kind of feel heard, I suppose, and feel seen in so many ways.

“That was really rewarding because that's the purpose of doing the podcast, that not everyone's going to go out looking for something but they might need a bit of help and they might not have even realised it.”

Episodes can be found on platforms including Spotify, Apple and Google.