Many women have struggled not only with the effects of menopause itself, but with the difficulty of getting their symptoms recognised by the medical profession. But Penny Lancaster has the unique distinction of having her menopause symptoms diagnosed by her co-stars in Loose Women . Before that, she says, she had been convinced that she was suffering from depression before being prescribed antidepressants. She told podcaster Louise Newton that she had been struggling to cope: “I used to lie in