From hot flashes to brain fog, perimenopause often comes with unexpected changes – but we're far from alone.
Increasingly, celebrities are speaking out and opening up about their perimenopause experiences, reassuring us we're not navigating this confusing and overwhelming time on our own. Every woman will go through this era during midlife, and the more people in the public eye that speak up, the less of a taboo it is.
Here, HELLO! revisits the celebrities sharing their perimenopause experiences…
Celebrities in perimenopause
Naomi Watts: Mood swings, night sweats and migraines
Naomi Watts, 56, began experiencing menopausal symptoms two decades ago at 36 years old. "Mood swings, night sweats, and migraines… I was feeling like I was spiraling out of control," she told HELLO! last year. "I truly believe that if menopause hadn't been such an off-limits topic when I first started experiencing symptoms, I would've had an easier transition."
Michelle Obama: Night sweats and hot flashes
In August 2020, Michelle Obama, 60, opened up about menopause on her Spotify podcast with gynecologist Dr. Sharon Malone. The former First Lady shared that before she started taking hormones, she experienced unpleasant symptoms, explaining: "I experienced the night sweats, even in my 30s, and hot flashes – I had a few before I started taking hormones.”
Michelle also discussed an experience of having hot flashes during her husband’s presidency. "I remember having one on Marine One. I’m dressed, I need to get out, walk into an event, and literally, it was like somebody put a furnace in my core and turned it on high, and then everything started melting. And I thought, 'Well, this is crazy—I can't, I can't, I can't do this'"
Gayle King: Hot flashes
"It feels like you're burning inside," Gayle, 69 explained in an interview for CBS Mornings. "For me, it was just a physical heat and then sometimes you have dripping, drenching sweats that can just happen at the most inopportune times."
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Beverly Johnson: Tiredness and physical changes
"My body changed. You start gaining weight in the middle. And I was still modeling,” explained former Vogue model Beverly, 72, who was discussing her fibroid-induced hysterectomy with PEOPLE.
"I felt tired. I remember talking to older women and when they'' break out in a sweat, I'd say, 'What's wrong? Are you okay?' And the response was always 'You'll know about it soon enough.' I never connected the two. Well, I was that woman now. You're in the middle of a conversation with an attractive guy — I was single — and all of a sudden, there's a mustache of sweat, and he's saying, 'Are you okay?'
"You don't have the hormones that keep you nice and moist in the areas you want to be nice and moist in. Mentally, you still have a sex drive but physically, there were changes. You're moist in all the wrong places and that was a big shocker for me. There are all these unexpected consequences."
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Oprah Winfrey: Restless sleep and heart palpitations
"For two years I didn’t sleep well. Never a full night. No peace. Restlessness and heart palpitations were my steady companions at nightfall," Oprah, who is now 70, explained on Oprah Daily. "This was back when I was 48 to 50.
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Drew Barrymore: Irregular periods
"I realized that I was in perimenopause when I started having my period every two weeks," Drew, 49 explained during the Facing Fertility series on CBS Mornings. "One doctor also just told me this could last, in the worst-case scenario, 10 years. And I was like, 'I will never make it 10 years like this!'"
Salma Hayek: Breast changes
"The boobs grow a lot," Salma Hayek, 58 revealed during an appearance on Red Table Talk. "For some women, they get smaller. But there are some women that when you gain weight, your boobs grow, and other women that when you have children and you breastfeed, your boobs grow and they don't go back down. And then in some of the cases, when you are in menopause they grow again. And I just happen to be one of those women where it happened in every single step!
"A lot of people said that I had breast augmentation, but they have just kept growing. Many, many sizes. And my back has been really suffering from it. And not a lot of people talk about this."
Gwyneth Paltrow: Mood changes and sweating
"I think when you get into perimenopause, you notice a lot of changes," Gwyneth, 52 explained in a Goop article back in 2018. "I can feel the hormonal shifts happening, the sweating, the moods — you're all of a sudden furious for no reason."
