Lorraine Keane surprised everyone when she walked away from TV3 to focus on her family and now 15 years on, she has no regrets - although some of her colleagues thought she was ‘mad’ for leaving.
The presenter had been a showbiz reporter for 10 years before the two she spent on Xposé and at the time she was trying for a third child. Although the IVF didn’t work out, Lorraine says she had nothing to lose leaving her job as it meant she'd get more time with her daughters Emilia and Romy.
She didn’t realise it at that time but Lorraine was already in perimenopause. It wasn’t until she went to an event in the Merrion Hotel that everything she had been feeling began making sense to her.
‘I actually thought I was cracking up, I didn’t feel like myself at all,’ she says. ‘I was irritable, tired, low energy, low mood, low libido, I wasn’t sleeping at night. I didn’t have hot flushes so I therefore I just didn’t think that it was anything to do with menopause, because that’s what I thought was the key symptom. Also I was still having regular periods. I just thought I was going mad, I really did. It was just horrible, and I didn’t want to tell anybody, but I just didn’t feel like myself.
‘It wasn’t until I went to a women’s health gathering in the Merrion Hotel that I found out what the perimenopause was. I just didn’t think that it had anything to do with me because I was in my late 30s. So I found out afterwards that was probably the reason the IVF didn’t work and I was thinking, if I don’t talk about this, how many other young women will be in the same situation as I was?’
Lorraine has been involved in women’s health ever since, as she says it helped her to talk about her own imbalanced hormones. ’That was a story that was really hard to share ten years ago,’ she says. ‘At the time so many of my colleagues and contemporaries were saying, “are you mad, you’ve just become freelance and you’re working in an industry that’s extremely ageist, especially towards women and now you’re going to make yourself sound like some sort of aul wan?”
‘But I knew we shouldn’t have that stigma or taboo attached to it because it’s only another natural life stage in our journey as women. It’s another hormonal life stage, so why are we afraid to say that we’re going through it?’
She wanted women to talk about it, to share and help each other to find the solutions they needed. ‘So I started talking about it – it was one of the scariest things I ever did,’ she admits. ‘Now it has been the best thing I ever did. and I’m really proud of the work that I’ve done in that space.’
Lorraine created her own tour with endocrinologist Dr Mary Ryan to help women find out about the menopause. Let’s Talk Hormone Health has also become a podcast in association with Cleanmarine, the maker of the Menomin supplement Lorraine swears by.
She has also been an ambassador for Breast Cancer Ireland for the last ten years as well as running her own Fashion Relief charity initiative.
Now 52, Lorraine says she is more comfortable in that skin than she ever was. ‘I still care, but I care less,’ she says. ‘I don’t sweat the small stuff like I used to. I know I’m good at what I do, I know I’m a good person, I know I’m happy to be where I am, where I’m at, and that’s such a lovely place to be. I know I’m very lucky. I’m blessed and I’m privileged.
‘That’s why I love being able to use the profile my job has given me. I’ve been working in the industry over 30 years, and I think it’s a privilege to be able to use it to help others, because I know I’m lucky to be here, still relevant and still working in the industry that I love.
The Very Pink Run takes place from 31 August to 8 September, register to take part at verypinkrun.ie for the three live events in Dublin, Kilkenny or Cork. Alternatively, do a run in your own community during the week of the national event – you can run 10km or 5km.
