Menopause seems to be a hot topic on Hollywood red carpets these days, but that wasn’t always the case. Now, thanks to leaders, like former What Not To Wear host Stacy London and daytime talk show host Sherri Shepherd, the stigma behind women’s health is starting to subside — and Flow Space was able to capture their candid thoughts on what this season of life looks like from their perspective.
At QVC’s recent Age of Possibility Summit in Las Vegas, London offered a “spoiler alert” that every woman over the age of 35 should take to heart. “A spoiler alert, honestly, for menopause is that you gotta learn about it in your late thirties,” she advised. “I feel like the movement has come a long way, but it’s really been in the last five years that we’ve started to talk about this; that doctors have started to educate themselves, and their patients, about what to expect.” It’s a “life stage,” just like menstruation and menopause, but “there are going to be changes that have longer life implications.”
Beverly Hills 90210 star Jennie Garth joked about how much “fun” it is to go through perimenopause and menopause, noting, “The hits keep on coming to the ladies — you know, menstruation, childbirth, now menopause.” She appreciated that “a community of women” have finally brought “the topic to the top of everyone’s conversation” in the entertainment and medical fields. “I think that’s something we all really needed… that sort of support and transparency amongst other women because we’re all going through the same thing” she added. “But there was something weird and taboo about talking about it, and now that’s just gone, which is amazing.”
Some Gen X women are taking a page from their Boomer mothers who “suffered in silence” when they hit menopause, which was something celebrity chef Carla Hall refused to do — she is loud and proud about it at 59! “I’ve been comfortable talking about it because it is natural. Why can’t we talk about something that’s naturally supposed to be happening to us? And if we don’t talk about it, then we don’t prepare the next generation for what is going to happen,” she explained to Flow Space. “I was born in 1964. My mother wasn’t talking about it. She would suffer in silence. I knew I wasn’t gonna do that.”
And neither was Shepherd, who brought her own bedazzled pocket fan for the hot flashes under the boiling Las Vegas sun — she was ready and prepared for any symptom. “I thought it was something you had to go through, it was gonna be 20 years of menopause,” she admitted. “But get with the right care provider and talk to your girlfriends because there are supplements that we can take, eating right… When I do too much sugar, [a] hot flash comes on very quickly. My mama didn’t tell me that. You can do something about it. You don’t have to sit and be passive.”
These stars are making their voices heard to not only advocate for themselves but to also facilitate crucial changes when it comes to women’s healthcare for the generations following in their footsteps. They are telling Millennials and Gen Z, “We’ve got your back!”