In 2022, we’ve come a long way when it comes to speaking up about menopause. But it can still be a topic that, for many people, isn’t always easy to talk about. In honor of World Menopause Day, here are six shareable celebrity menopause moments that you can use to get the conversation started.
1. Courteney Cox remakes her ‘80s Tampax commercial, menopause-style
(September 2022) Courteney Cox posted this wryly humorous take on the "joys" of menopause in a shot-for-shot remake of her 1980s Tampax commercial. No jokes about it—menopause symptoms can be unpleasant and unfunny. But the fact is that these are experiences shared by millions of women every day, and sometimes? You've just got to laugh.
SHARE IT WITH: Your gal pal who chooses streaming services based on which one currently has Friends.
2. Michelle Obama on hot flashes, hormones, and supporting women in the White House
(August 2020) In an episode of The Michelle Obama Podcast, the former First Lady sat down with OB-GYN Dr. Sharon Malone for some frank talk about menopause, sharing from her own experiences and those of other women in the White House. She also spoke about breaking down the stigma around menopause to help empower and educate women: "When you think of all that a woman's body has to do over the course of her lifetime, going from being prepared to give birth, to actually giving birth, and then having that whole reproductive system shut down in menopause, the changes, the highs and lows and the hormonal shifts, there is power in that. But we were taught to be ashamed of it. And to not even seek to understand it, or explore it for our own edification, let alone to help the next generation.”
Listen to the episode here: What Your Mother Never Told You About Health with Dr. Sharon Malone
SHARE IT WITH: Your loved one who has surprisingly strong opinions about the best way to stream podcasts.
3. Viola Davis explains menopause to Jimmy Kimmel
(January 2019) Viola Davis may have kept things light when making fun of her menopause experiences on Jimmy Kimmel Live, but she also kept it real by refusing to be shy when it came to talking out loud about the subject: “You’re not the only one [who knows nothing about the female body]. When you talk about anything, especially dealing with menopause or breasts, men just die a slow death.” Despite this risk of imminent danger to host Jimmy Kimmel or the men in the studio audience, the Oscar-winning actress proceeded to do just that.
SHARE IT WITH: Your guy friend who’s otherwise cool but who won’t go down the tampon aisle.
4. Naomi Watts tells Drew Barrymore what it was like to be caught off guard
(October 2022) While giving a "menopausal skin" facial massage on The Drew Barrymore Show, Naomi Watts relayed how she was totally blindsided by perimenopause at the age of 36, when she was trying to have children. Her experience with perimenopause and then menopause convinced her that she had to take action to help women feel less alone and to change the way we talk about menopause as a key—yet so often overlooked—part of women’s health: “We’ve just got to end the stigma and the shame and the confusion, and to put our hands up for ourselves and be our best advocates.”
Read more about her journey through perimenopause and menopause in her
People Magazine interview.
SHARE IT WITH: Your bestie who thinks sheet masks are basically as good as therapy.
5. Salma Hayek pushes to get menopause representation on the big screen
(June 2021) In a Facebook video with Jada Pinkett-Smith, Salma Hayek recounted a story about the time when, about to star in a new action movie, she had to convince the filmmakers that her character should be a woman in her 50s dealing with menopause. (Their initial response? “Do we have to say the word…?”) The move wasn’t just a personal whim, but instead a demonstration that menopause isn’t toxic and that films should acknowledge that women over 40 exist: “There's no expiration dates for women. That has to go. Because you can kick ass at any age. You can hold your own at any age, you can dream at any age, you can be romantic at any age. We have the right to be loved for who we are, at the place that we are.”
SHARE IT WITH: Your work friend who’s seen every Fast & Furious movie. Twice.
6. Fleabag on the freedom and power that menopause can unlock
(March 2019) In this season 2 episode of the critically acclaimed TV show Fleabag, Kristin Scott Thomas’s character delivers an unflinching and unfiltered take on how menopause transforms a woman’s life (for good and for ill) with the ultimate message that menopause is something to embrace and welcome: “It is horrendous, but then it’s magnificent.”
SHARE IT WITH: Every woman you know.
