Joanna Donnelly no longer feels self-conscious and learned to put herself first after hitting menopause

Joanna Donnelly embraces getting older and says she no longer feels self-conscious and has learned to put herself first.

The RTE weather presenter is 54 years old and is still eager to take on new challenges.

Joanna took HRT (hormone replacement therapy) to help combat menopause symptoms after noticing changes in her mental health. She now has a renewed sense of what she wants in life.

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"I didn't have many physical symptoms but the mental symptoms - the anxiety and paranoia -really take the rug out from under you," Joanna said.

"Why should we suffer? Absolutely not. Give me the drugs! I don't want to suffer.

"I am beyond middle age now and I don't have any self-consciousness left which is great, it's a benefit of growing old. I think it is menopause and I love it because you finally get to say, 'No you're grand, I'm not interested in that' like the way men do their whole lives.

"They put themselves first and think about themselves first. Women put everyone else first and then we hit menopause and our hormones change and all of a sudden we get a bit, 'No, do you know what? You're grand'."

Joanna is one of the 11 celebrities who will make their debut on the Dancing With The Stars dance floor this weekend. The RTE star wants to be a relatable contestant for viewers at home and has a point to prove.

"I am 54 and I want to say to women: This is 54, this is what we can do and we can do it the same as the 25-year-olds - maybe not quite as well but we can accept new challenges," she told Irish Daily Mail's You magazine.

"We are not ready for the scrapheap just yet. We have our power still."

Rehearsals have been exhausting, but Joanna is grateful for the support of her family - husband Harm and their three children Nicci, Casper and Tobias.

She said: "Harm has been great, very supportive. I have been trying to uphold my end of the bargain in the house, sort Christmas, mind the kids and so on, and still work but it is a huge challenge with the physicality of it. I am wiped out at the end of the day."

But Joanna added she is not letting the nerves get to her and is looking forward to dancing in front of the nation.

"I preach this, because I go into schools and talk to kids about maths, science and meteorology. People ask all the time if I am nervous about going on TV and doing the weather - but my answer is no because the way to not be nervous is to know that you've done your best. Work as hard as you can to deliver the best that you can do and if you do that, then that's all you can do.

"So I don't get nervous, I'm not nervous of the camera or the people. The only thing I am nervous of is doing myself a serious injury."

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