Published on
Updated
Reading 3 mins.
Is the menopause emerging from the somewhat shameful recess in which it has long been confined? In the United States, the conversation seems to have been launched, in particular by celebrities saying they want to lift the taboo in the name of women’s health.
Of course, some of them did not fail to smell the lucrative potential of a booming market.
Naomi Watts, Gwyneth Paltrow, Oprah Winfrey… A plethora of personalities are now talking about it openly, and press articles are multiplying on the subject. Michelle Obama herself addressed the subject in 2020 in her podcast.
“During my acting career, I escaped tsunamis and faced King Kong. But nothing prepared me for early menopause“, wrote Naomi Watts (“Mulholland Drive”), 54, recounting the hormonal upheavals she began to experience at 36.
The very influential Oprah Winfrey, 69, a figure of American television, said that she believed she was “dying” at the end of her forties as her heart was beating so hard.
“I had severe palpitations and (…) I have diaries filled with + I don’t know if I will survive until morning +“, she recounted.
“I went to see five different doctors. None once suggested it could be menopause“, she lamented.
This is why, she argues, it is so necessary to talk about it to educate women but also doctors.
Because some have gaps on the subject or consider that these sufferings go hand in hand with this obligatory stage of the life of a woman.
Patients and doctors
Menopause, which marks the end of menstrual cycles, is above all associated in the collective imagination with hot flashes and mood swings, which are still sources of bad taste jokes.
But if many women are affected, others show different signs: insomnia, hair loss, deep anxiety, etc.
Dr. Wen Shen, professor of gynecology and menopause specialist at Johns Hopkins University, told AFP that according to her estimates, 20% of women with symptoms have symptoms that are “really horrible, life-destroying , their ability to concentrate at work and their relationships”.
And it is now known that “physiological changes” associated with symptoms can be dangerous and potentially pose an increased risk of cardiovascular disease or cognitive impairment, and that “being post-menopausal increases your risk of osteoporosis“, she explains.
It therefore welcomes the enthusiasm for the question.
“Traditionally, it is such a taboo (…). So having movie stars talking about it and being honest (about their experience) is a good thing.“, she says.
“Unfortunately, many doctors don’t know much about menopause.“, she regrets, the subject being only very little discussed in the faculties of medicine.
In 2012, she explains, her team conducted a survey of gynecology interns in the United States, finding that the majority of them “did not feel comfortable dealing with menopause“.
She therefore hopes that normalization will push them to refer patients who need it to a doctor who will be able to help them.
Hen with the golden eggs?
On the celebrity side, this interest is sometimes coupled with an investment in products intended for premenopausal or menopausal women.
Naomi Watts launched her own brand in October, Stripes, with “densifying” masks for the hair and creams against vaginal dryness.
Oscar-winning actress Gwyneth Paltrow has been offering a dietary supplement called “Madame Ovary” ($90) for several years with her Goop brand.
And tennis superstar Serena Williams has recently invested in the Wile brand, dietary supplements which she claims are “game changer for women over 40“.
To counter the symptoms of menopause, hormonal treatments have long been widely prescribed in the United States, before a controversial study caused panic by suggesting high risks for women’s health.
But research on the subject over the past twenty years now makes it possible to better understand these treatments and to calibrate their prescription, says Dr. Shen, who is however concerned about the appearance of companies delivering them by telephone.
She advises patients suffering from serious symptoms to ask to be referred to menopause specialists, who can then prescribe the appropriate treatment, hormonal or not.