For years, the sweeping physical and emotional midlife change that women undergo has been shunted to the shadowy corners of public view, and barely even discussed among friends.
In the United States, menopause is moving off the back burner, in part thanks to Hollywood A-listers who say it’s high time to end the taboo surrounding a biological process that affects half the world’s population.
Of course, some of those same celebrities have sought to cash in on an as yet untapped gold mine by offering a range of new products aimed at middle-aged women seeking relief.
Naomi Watts, Gwyneth Paltrow and Oprah Winfrey have all recently gone on the record about the symptoms they have experienced. Michelle Obama tackled menopause on her podcast in 2020.
“Over the course of my career as an actor, I’ve outrun tsunamis and come face-to-face with ‘King Kong.’ But nothing prepared me for early menopause,” writes the 54-year-old Watts, explaining that she began noticing physiological changes at age 36.
Winfrey, the 69-year-old talk show queen, said her heart palpitations in her late 40s were so severe that she thought she was “going to die every single night.”
“I went to five different doctors — nobody ever once suggested that it could be menopause,” Winfrey says, calling for more public discourse to warn women about what is to come, and also to make doctors more aware of the need for better care.
Some doctors appear to be woefully unversed on the topic, or simply embrace the old-fashioned notion that it’s a phase to be dealt with and nothing more.
– Better patient care? –
Menopause, which marks the one-year point after a woman’s final menstrual period, is actually the end point of a much longer cycle.
Perimenopause is the final phase of a woman’s reproductive cycle and is the time when many of the most troublesome symptoms are noticed — from night sweats and hot flashes to insomnia, hair loss, anxiety, heavy bleeding and low sex drive.
For some women, this phase can last for up to a decade — hence the need for better awareness, care and consideration.
Studies suggest a vast majority of women will experience at least one menopausal symptom in their lifetime.
Wen Shen, an associate professor of gynecology and obstetrics at Johns Hopkins University in Baltimore and the co-director of its Women’s Wellness and Healthy Aging Program, says 20 percent of women with symptoms have “really horrible, severe” issues.
Those experiences during perimenopause can “basically ruin their lives, ruin their ability to focus at work, to concentrate, ruin their relationships,” Shen told AFP.
She is in favor of the movement by showbiz power players to destigmatize the condition especially as, in her view, “unfortunately, many doctors are not well versed.”
“Traditionally it has been such a taboo. And women were afraid to admit they were in menopause, because it’s sometimes shameful. And it was associated with aging,” Shen said.
“So I think…
