Callard's depression caused by hysterectomy

Coronation Street star Beverley Callard has revealed that her depression was caused by a hormonal imbalance due to a hysterectomy.

The actress, who plays Liz McDonald in the soap, felt so low in 1997 that she wanted to die and felt like she could not carry on working on the show, which she left the following year.

Callard's colleague and friend Anne Kirkbride, who plays Deirdre Barlow, called the show's doctor when she noticed that something was wrong.

The Granada doctor diagnosed her with depression but it was only three years later that she realised that this was due to an acute hormonal imbalance, caused by a hysterectomy she had undergone several years earlier.

Callard said: "I didn't admit it to a soul, but I wished I were dead. I couldn't have killed myself, knowing how it would have affected my loved ones, but I hoped I would be wiped out in a car accident or plane crash.

"I had two wonderful children, a great job and no money worries - an enviable life - and yet I felt completely bleak."

Callard had the hysterectomy in 1991, when she had only been in Corrie for one year, after she experienced excessive menstrual bleeding following the birth of her second child.

After a year of deterioration she broke down on set, but went back to work straight away after the doctor had prescribed her with medicine. However, she still felt bleak and left the show in 1998.

The actress returned to the soap in 2003 upon learning that the problem in fact lay in her ovaries, and was given different medication.

She said: "In 2002, I began feeling that maybe things weren't so bad on some days. I didn't feel as heavy or weighed down anymore. I came off the other antidepressants and was put on Prozac, which I am still on, along with the HRT."

Callard added: "I have never felt better. I have a hot flush about once every three months and I call it a power surge. I don't ever want to come off it. I would rather have a heart attack than depression."