Former Ireland AM presenter Lorraine Keane has told how scheduled sex during her IVF battle took the romance out of her relationship.

The screen and stage star said the scientific approach to making love put a strain on her and musician hubby Peter Devlins marriage.

But the 47-year-old revealed that with the right hormone balance shes bringing sexy back.

Mum-of-two Lorraine opened up on losing clumps of hair, breaking out in adult acne and having a low libido, as the gruelling perimenopause took its grip.

She said her failed IVF attempts were directly linked to her hormone imbalance and she counts herself lucky to have her daughters.

Lorraine told Dublin Live: I kept it to myself for all of the time that we thought it might happen.

It was really difficult to come out and talk about being perimenopausal. But then it made sense to come out and talk about the whole truth.

Maybe I didnt talk about doing IVF during it because I thought, If I do have a baby maybe I wont want to say thats how we conceived.

But then I got such an amazing reaction for opening up about the menopause, it gave me the confidence to speak out and to help other women who may have an opportunity to conceive and maybe their hormones are the reason that theyre not.

Id hate for them to go through three sessions of IVF for all of those reasons, because of the mental and physical harm that it does to you, your wallet as well.

The star admitted the gruelling IVF sessions were tough on her relationship.

She said: It takes the romance out of things, before you even do the business, youre looking at calendars and scheduling in time to have sex, its not very romantic.

Im sure most men are thinking, Id love that but when youre actually in it, the pressure of, Please God make this work it takes away the spontaneity completely.

But thank God myself and Peter always had two healthy babies to go back to.

I feel for people who dont have children, we could count our blessings with the two that we have.

Opening up on her hormonal imbalance, Lorraine said: If you are going to go through menopause then you will go through perimenopause first.

Its a milder version of full-blown menopause Im told.

For example, I havent had a hot flush, or I dont have any problems with my nether regions.

I know during menopause women have terrible pain there, especially during sex, but there is so much help out there, lots of options, whether it be natural, medical, even diet can help.

The symptoms I had were I did get night sweats before I started taking MenoMin and made a visit to endocrinologist Dr Mary Ryan to check my hormone levels.

Clumps of my hair fell out in the shower, it was all hormone related, I had extensions for ages but the worst was the hormonal breakouts, adult acne.

Now I feel balanced, like the 35-year-old me I sleep better (I was waking three to five times a night), my libido has returned, Ive less joint pain, no more hair loss, no hormonal breakouts, I feel brilliant.

Lorraine was approached to front the Cleanmarine brand and despite her initial shock at being approached, shes never looked back.

With perimenopausal symptoms starting when she was 37, she wished she knew her hormones were the main reason she couldnt add to her family. She said: I didnt realise it was something I could fix, maintain and control.

Myself and Peter would have loved to have had more children but we were in one of these situations that was unexplained infertility.

I found out I went into perimenopause very young, normally its 40-plus, I was 37 or 38 going into this.

There I was spending a fortune on IVF, emotionally, physically and mentally suffering through a few phases of it.

Neither one of us were infertile, so it could have been down to hormones and the fact I was in the perimenopause.

I felt low, no energy, very slow, I was annoyed with myself because Ive so much to be grateful for and then Id feel annoyed because I wasnt singing, whistling or being chirpy about life. I discovered taking the right supplements you can have perimenopause and menopause and still be sexy, its just hormones.

Lorraine is urging the public to help support Fashion Relief in aid of Oxfam at Dublins RDS on March 27 and 28.

She said: I travelled to Bangladesh to visit the refugee camp in 2019 and raised 203,000.

To know that theyll have clean safe drinking water and to have a health clinic on site because of Fashion Relief is incredible. Not even half of that will be needed for the camp and it will keep the camp running safely for another year.

The people dont want to be there, but they cant go back home as its unsafe, so at least while there, we know theyll be safe, healthy and educated, weve teachers on site too.

That was down to everyone giving their services and talents for free, the clothes on the day people donate pre-loved designer clothing, it doesnt always have to be designer. Boutiques, wholesalers and designers all donate, its an amazing day out, everything we dont sell goes back into the Oxfam shops.

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Lorraine Keane reveals 'scheduled sex' during IVF battle took romance out of relationship - Dublin Live

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