Drew Barrymore is in her menopause era, and she’s getting vulnerable about the challenges. During a recent conversation with Oprah Winfrey titled “The Menopause Talk,” Barrymore was joined by joined Maria Shriver, Dr. Sharon Malone, Dr. Heather Hirsch, and Dr. Judith Joseph to talk about the ups and downs of menopause — and the stigma that comes along with it.
During the conversation, Barrymore said that she’d recently hesitated to tell a date about the fact that she was participating on a panel focused on perimenopause and menopause. Her reticent response was out of character for the actor, who describes herself as an open book. (And that’s not all talk. Barrymore recently made news for saying that she was having her first-ever hot flash on air during a segment on “The Drew Barrymore Show.”) But in this case her reluctance, she said, came from a fear of being judged. “There’s something in that stigma that I don’t want you to think I’m some dusty, old, dry thing. That’s not the image I want,” Barrymore said.
“To a lover . . . there might be something repellent about that subject, whereas with no one else do I find the subject taboo,” Barrymore said. “So why did I have that feeling?”
“You wanted him to think that you were a hot babe,” Winfrey replied. Barrymore admitted, “I did.”
“In this moment, I thought, ‘Oh, it’s so funny that there’s one hot guy there that I didn’t want to know that I was about to go talk about menopause because of the stigma,'” Barrymore went on to say.
The “50 First Dates” star isn’t alone in her feelings, though. Research out of the Menopause Foundation of Canada found that 54 percent of women said that menopause is still a taboo topic. In fact, people are less comfortable discussing menopause than they are discussing their own financial situation, cancer, and even politics, according to recent data from Ipsos, a market research firm.
Women even feel shame and confusion in their healthcare experiences when it comes to menopause. “I get different answers from different doctors,” said Barrymore. “Nothing tracks, nothing Venn diagrams. I feel incredibly lost.”
“The Menopause Talk” was meant to help break down the stigma that still exists around menopause, so one day society as a whole will start to feel more comfortable talking openly about it. Because as we know, open dialogue is so important — it can lead to more knowledge, resources, and even research being done into a health issue that will eventually affect nearly half the world’s population.
“For generations, millions and millions of women have suffered the symptoms of menopause and suffered in silence,” Winfrey said during the panel. “And it’s always been shrouded in stigma and shrouded in shame. Women have told me they feel invisible, as if their very selves are disappearing. But we are flipping that script today.”
“If Mark Zuckerberg could rebrand Facebook to Meta, maybe we can do this for menopause,” Barrymore said.
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