25 Celebs Get Personal With Their Perimenopause and Menopause Stories

Alanis Morissette, 52

Even legendary rockers have to deal with menopause and a midlife awakening. During a recent episode of the Call Her Daddy podcast, Alanis Morissette, 52, shared that the transformations she’s experienced as a result of being in midlife and going through menopause have made her completely unafraid to speak her mind. She previously called menopause a “truth serum” and has mentioned that she takes HRT.

“I’ll be in meetings and someone will say something and I’ll just say ‘That’s patriarchal’ or ‘That’s really rude,’ and I’ll just keep talking,” the “Ironic” singer explained to host Alex Cooper. “It just flies out and I can’t stop.”

While being this outspoken is new to the lifelong introvert, Morissette says it’s been freeing. Her newfound candor has also made it easier to manage the ups and downs of menopause and midlife.

“What I love about menopause is often people use the metaphor that every leaf on the tree gets pulled or every stone gets unturned,” she said. “No — for me, it’s feels like the tree itself is ripped out of the ground and the roots are everywhere and its like, ‘Good luck.'”

The “You Oughta Know” singer says she’s now more honest in every aspect of her life including her sexuality, artistry and finances. It’s made her “less reactive” and allowed her to deepen her friendships.

“There’s more room for humanity, vulnerability and power,” she adds. “It’s a rollercoaster hormonally, but it’s not existentially a rollercoaster — I’m in this observation seat and I’m charmed.”

Halle Berry, 50

Academy Award-winning actress Halle Berry has long been an advocate for menopause education after her menopause symptoms were misdiagnosed as herpes. Along with founding Respin, her own menopause wellness brand, Berry has shared plenty of stories about how it feels to be in menopause over the years.

One such story? Berry had a hot flash on set while shooting an ad campaign for French beauty giant Lancôme.

“I had this hot flash before I even knew I was hot flashing, before I even knew I was in menopause or perimenopause. Out of the blue, I just started sweating, like an internal heat just sort of came up from my chest,” Berry said. “Sweat just started rolling down, and it was so embarrassing when you’re in the middle of a scene, and you have to say ‘cut’ because I’m sweating. I was in a cycle of hot flashing, and I didn’t know what was wrong with me, and it was really scary.”

Shania Twain, 61

For country singer Shania Twain, aging and menopause have been clarifying experiences that have actually built her self confidence

“I think menopause was a very good thing for me because there were a lot more things changing in everything about me physically that I had to very quickly come to terms with,” the “Any Man of Mine” singer told the New York Post in a 2023 interview.

“Menopause taught me to quickly say, ‘You know, it may only get worse. So just love yourself now. Just get over your insecurities—they’re standing in your way. And fear is standing in your way.’ I always sing about being fearless and all of that. I go there when I write. But I’m not living it the way I’m writing it,” Twain said. “And I want to live the way I write. I’m more fierce than I ever was because I really demanded it about myself.”

Michelle Obama, 62

In recent years, Michelle Obama has been forthcoming about what it’s like to experience menopause. She dedicated a 2020 episode of her eponymous podcast to the topic of women’s health, menopause and aging, and brought on her friend and personal OB-GYN Dr. Sharon Malone as a guest. During the episode, Obama revealed that she takes hormone replacement therapy (HRT) to handle severe hot flashes.

And it turns out that even the former First Lady has experienced a hot flash while at work: Obama recalled a time when she had a hot flash while traveling on the presidential helicopter with her husband, President Barack Obama.

“I remember having one on Marine One,” she said. “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. Then, everything started melting and I thought, ‘Well this is crazy, I can’t do this!’”

Apparently, President Obama wasn’t phased. 

“Barack was surrounded by women in his cabinet, many going through menopause, and he could see it. He could see it in somebody because sweat would start pouring, and he’s like, ‘Well, what’s going on,’” recalled Obama. “He didn’t fall apart because he found out there were several women in his staff that were going through menopause. It was just sort of like, ‘Oh, well, turn the air conditioner on.’”

Viola Davis, 61

EGOT winner Viola Davis educated talk show host Jimmy Kimmel on a 2019 episode of his show about the realities of menopause and shared how it impacted her relationship with her husband.

“When you talk about anything, especially dealing with menopause or breasts, men just die a slow death,” Davis, who was then 53, said. When Kimmel replied to ask what menopause was, she was honest.

“Menopause is hell, Jimmy. That’s what menopause is. Menopause is a dark hole, so that’s where I’m at right now. I either will love my husband today or kill him today,” she joked.

She also mentioned the difficulty of brain fog and menopause weight gain. One time, Davis’ husband asked her to put a bowl in the sink, but she accidentally put it in the refrigerator. On weight gain, she joked that “it’s like the cartoon where the little girl gets on the scale and her little friend runs up behind her and says, ‘Get off that thing! Everybody who gets on that cries!’ So that’s me, I’m getting on that thing crying everyday.”

When Kimmel asked how long menopause lasts, Davis replied: “Somebody needs to tell me because it’s lasted now for about six or seven years.”

Naomi Watts, 57

Naomi Watts, a two-time Oscar-nominated actress, experienced early menopause at 36. Now the founder of menopausal wellness brand Stripes, she has helped open up the conversation about what it’s like to go through menopause.

In her book Dare I Say It: Everything I Wish I’d Known About Menopause, she writes about what happened on the first night she had sex with her now-husband, fellow actor Billy Crudup. At the time, Watts shared that she was still figuring out how to deal with early menopause and had to excuse herself to remove her estrogen patch.

“I had to disappear into the bathroom,” she shared, “and I wasn’t slipping into something more comfortable… it wasn’t 1952, my negligee in my purse. I literally went in there to scratch off the estrogen patch that I was wearing.”

She was nervous about Crudup finding out why she disappeared. “I was in there too long, and when I came out, flustered, he asked, ‘Are you OK? Not in the mood?’” Watts recalled.

So she decided to tell the truth. “I just spilled the beans—‘Oh my God, advanced aging! Menopause! Should I just leave?’”

Expecting him to want to leave, Watts was surprised and relieved when he had the opposite reaction. “He was like, ‘Wow, rock on. You’re getting treatment. You’ve got things under control. How can I help?’”

Speaking on a panel at the SHE Media Co-Lab at SXSW earlier this year, Watts said that embracing her own desires and needs during midlife has helped her marriage and sex life.

“Through the experience of growing into myself—with all my flaws and all my vulnerabilities—I felt safe enough in that relationship,” she added, “and I could say, ‘This is what I want to feel… hot… or seen. I think that grows within the relationship. It finds a place for something quite wonderful to happen.”

Alyssa Milano, 53

Actress and producer Alyssa Milano has been opening up about her own experience with perimenopause as she promotes the four-part docuseries she produced called Balance: A Perimenopause Journey, which is currently airing on Apple TV and Amazon Prime.

The 53-year-old Charmed alum told AARP in an interview that she didn’t know she was in perimenopause when she started experiencing hot flashes, insomnia and brain fog at age 41. “When I look at those lists of perimenopause symptoms now, I had every single one of them,” she said.

Milano has since started hormone replacement therapy in the form of estrogen, progesterone and testosterone, which has been a positive experience for her. “A week after starting hormone replacement therapy (HRT), I felt like a whole new person,” she said in the same interview.

Melissa Joan Hart, 50

Actress Melissa Joan Hart recently opened up to People about how she’s handling perimenopause. For the Sabrina the Teenage Witch star, the transition has meant quitting sugar and alcohol.

She told the magazine that she initially thought perimenopause would impact her ability to lose weight, but that cutting sugar and drinks helped her drop 20 pounds. “I actually feel stronger and better than I have in a really long time,” Hart said.

Weight loss wasn’t Hart’s main goal. She explained how she was “just trying to feel better” amidst the changes of perimenopause.

“I really didn’t think I could lose weight anymore, being in midlife and perimenopause and all those things, I was like, ‘Can I really lose weight? I don’t think I can,’“ she told the magazine.

Niecy Nash-Betts, 56

The Emmy Award-winning actress Niecy Nash-Betts shared in an interview with Flow Space that she and her wife Jessica Betts are helping each other manage menopause. When Nash-Betts started menopause in her 40s after an ovary-sparing hysterectomy, she didn’t know what to expect beyond the end of her periods and hot flashes. She was on vacation when she started not feeling like herself and couldn’t relax.

“I was irritable, had digestive issues, couldn’t sleep and felt anxious. I kept asking, ‘What is going on with my body?!’” she said.

Having each other to lean on, plus their shared sense of humor, helped the couple cope will all menopause brought. “We had moments where we were both having a hot flash at the same time, and it has made the process that much easier because we just laugh at those symptoms together,” Nash-Betts said. “We laugh our way through a lot of things, because what else could we do? We laugh to keep from crying!”

Support from her wife, friends and colleagues helped Nash-Betts cope. “It is inevitable that a menopause symptom will hit you when you’re working,” she said. “In those moments, I was lucky to be surrounded by supportive colleagues and friends. They’ll grab me my bedazzled fan during a hot flash, breathe with me while I’m anxious, or just laugh through it—a positive support system is everything!”

Oprah Winfrey, 72

During a 2025 interview with Good Morning America to promote her special series about menopause, Oprah Winfrey opened up about her own menopause experience. The mogul dealt with common menopause symptoms like brain fog, which was particularly upsetting because it impacted her ability to concentrate while reading. It got so bad that she temporarily paused her famous book club.

“The worst part for me, this is when I knew I was really in trouble, is when I couldn’t concentrate reading,” Winfrey said. “I love reading so much, but I let go of the book club because I could not concentrate when I was reading. I could no longer finish a book.”

It was only after she started taking HRT that she could continue the book club. “I brought [the book club] back when I started taking estrogen, because I could concentrate again, but I actually never shared that before, that the real reason I had to stop it is because I could no longer concentrate. It makes me want to cry.”

Winfrey also detailed the other symptoms she experienced, which included heart palpitations. “I didn’t have night sweats, and I didn’t have hot flashes, but I had never heard that heart palpitations [were] a symptom of menopause,” she said. She didn’t share what she was going through at the time or how upsetting the palpitations were. “I really thought I was going to die and was surprised when I woke up,” she added.

Kelly Ripa, 55

In a 2023 episode of her podcast, Let’s Talk Off Camera, Kelly Ripa talked about the confusion she felt when starting perimenopause.

“I could barely sit up and I was like, ‘I don’t know what’s wrong with me,’ and [my doctor] said, ‘You’re probably perimenopausal’ and I was like ‘No, I get my period constantly.’ And she said, ‘Yeah that’s perimenopause. That’s part of it,” the host of Live with Kelly and Mark said. She also shared that she experienced a lowered sex drive and vaginal dryness.

But she’s since come to appreciate some of the perks menopause provides. “I love not getting my period. There—I said it,” she added. Another perk? Wearing white pants with no worry. “My first Memorial Day through Labor Day after menopause… It was the summer of the white pant because I [didn’t have] to worry about wearing white pants,” she said.

Naomi Campbell, 56

Catwalk legend Naomi Campbell appeared in The Super Models, a four-part docuseries that aired in 2023, alongside her friends and fellow model icons Cindy Crawford, Linda Evangelista and Christy Turlington. In one episode, Campbell experiences a hot flash on set of a photoshoot.

“I think I’m going through menopause. It’s pre-menopause,” she said as she started to get flustered.

Someone asked whether she needed help cooling down. “There’s nothing you can do. It just happens. Shit. Lord,” Campbell replied, adding that she felt like she “just got into a furnace.”

“One minute, I’m fine. Next minute, just this furnace comes up,” she said. “Why do men not get menopause?”

Stacy London, 57

Stacy London, fashion expert and member of Flow Space’s Advisory Council, often shares wisdom and stories about perimenopause and menopause. During a video interview with Flow Space at the QVC Age of Possibility Summit earlier this year, she mentioned that she wishes she’d known how heavily perimenopause would affect her mentally.

“I wish that somebody had told me that a lot of the issues I was going to have in perimenopause were going to manifest as things that were anxiety or depression or rage or that I was going to have headaches, joint pain and brain fog and not be able to sleep anymore,” she said. “You feel like you want to crawl out of your skin.”

Gloria Reuben, 62

Actress and singer Gloria Reuben opened up to Flow Space in 2024 about how frequent hot flashes impacted her career and personal life. The hot flashes started when the ER star was 54 or 55. She first noticed them while on set, sometimes during dramatic, important scenes. “Not only did it make my physical appearance change in terms of sweat, it also created a feeling of worry and anxiety,” she told Flow Space.

“I remember more than a few times being in the makeup chair and apologizing because I started to sweat because I got a hot flash,” Reuben said.

The frequency of the hot flashes impacted her focus, and she likened them to a “little dragon.”

“It’s woken up, it’s opened its mouth and it’s spewing that fire and I feel it coming up and up and up and then I start sweating because it’s hot,” she says. “All the while, I’m trying to hold my composure for the camera or on a date. I wake up in sheets that are all crumpled up and wrapped around, and it’s not because of anything fun.”

She now has fewer night sweats and hot flashes thanks to Veozah, an FDA-approved, hormone-free treatment. “The worry and anxiety have lessened a great deal,” she says. “I’m not nervous or anxious in front of the camera anymore.”

Gabrielle Union, 53

Actress Gabrielle Union, 53, has shared several stories about her menopause experience recently. In a January 2025 interview on Today with Jenna & Sheinelle, Union told a story about experiencing a major menopause symptom at the Met Gala in front of other celebrities like Bad Bunny, Sydney Sweeney and Gigi Hadid.

Over the course of the packed night, Union said she had an intense hot flash.

“I’m like, let me get a little espresso. Well, cue the flop sweat! And [my husband Dwayne Wayde] goes, ‘Baby, you are sweating, you’re sweating!’ And I go, ‘I know!,” she said.

“What do I do? In front of these people?! All of a sudden, I look up and Bad Bunny goes, ‘Are you OK?!’ And I can’t stop it. It’s just coming down in sheets,” she recalled, mentioning that the star handed her napkins to dry off.

She said the experience solidified her desire to be open about what it’s like to experience menopause to help other women not be embarrassed.

It’s not the first time Union has shared her menopause stories.

On a 2023 episode of The Drew Barrymore Show focused on women’s health, Union dove deep into her perimenopause experience. When she visited the doctor in her late 30s because “something felt off,” she was told she was technically in perimenopause. But it wasn’t until her mid 40s that she noticed symptoms.

“It felt like it happened overnight, it was like 27 odd pounds,” she said. She reached out to her doctor, who told her to cut alcohol, dairy, sugar and caffeine from her diet for three weeks; she replied that she could cut “three out of four.” Union said the changes were “dramatic.”

The Bring It On star also shared that she experienced significant mood changes, which she didn’t realize were a symptom of perimenopause. Rather than fighting the shifts, she tries to lean into them instead of suppressing them. I go to the bathroom, and I listen to my favorite sad song—like the song you listen to to make you cry—and I just cry, and I’m able to release something,” she said.

Samantha Bee, 56

Samantha Bee wrote an entire one woman show, How to Survive Menopause, about doing exactly that and has shared plenty of stories about her experience with perimenopause and menopause over the years.

During a panel discussion for Perry, a perimenopause support and community platform, the comedian recalled a time on the set of a Dove commercial when she experienced the heaviest period she’d ever had.

“I was wearing all white, and I was sitting on the sofa, and it was like an industrial commercial, so it wasn’t for air, but I was like, ‘I’m feeling something so weird in my lower parts. What is going on?’” Bee said. “And I went to the bathroom, and I was like, ‘Oh, I’m dying. I’m going to die right now. I’m hemorrhaging.’” 

Drew Barrymore, 51

Frequent, heavy periods are what tipped off Drew Barrymore that she was starting perimenopause. 

“I realized that I was in perimenopause when I started having my period every two weeks,” the actress and talk show host said on a 2023 episode of 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!”

Lisa Ann Walter, 63

Lisa Ann Walter, 63, has been vocal about the importance of not shaming women for talking about their menopause experiences. The Abbott Elementary actress spoke with Peoplemagazine in 2024 about one instance where she had a hot flash during a callback for a role.

“I was too embarrassed to say, ‘No, I’m not nervous. I’m just old and having a hot flash,'” Walter told the magazine. “Women are sort of forced into maintaining youth or the illusion of youth. It’s completely unfair, and then you discount all of the wonderful things that go with being mature and experienced and the wisdom that goes along with all of that.”

She mentioned that she is done feeling ashamed about menopause and hopes that it’s seen more as a natural part of a woman’s life rather than something shameful or worth hiding.

“Getting older as a female in this country has got to become something that is not the punchline or a topic that’s shameful,” she added. “I don’t know anybody in my mother’s generation that spoke openly about menopause. They kind of refer to it in these hushed tones—it’s like when people used to talk about periods, like the curse. Anything that has to do with being a woman is somehow connected to something that’s shame-based.”

Taraji P. Henson, 55

Mood changes are often overlooked as a menopause symptom, despite 4 in 10 women experiencing them, according to the American College of Obstetricians & Gynecologists (ACOG). Taraji P. Henson spoke with SELF in 2019 about experiencing debilitating mood swings due to menopause, which she worked through with help from her therapist.

“I would get so low, really, really low, beaten, like never before,” the Hidden Figures star said. “You may have those days [when] you’re like, ‘Oh, I just don’t feel like getting out of bed. I just want to sleep in,’ but you don’t feel heavy. I was just starting to feel heavy a lot, [like] suffocating… It just came out of nowhere,” she said.

Initially, she told the magazine she wasn’t sure whether menopause was to blame, but her therapist confirmed the connection.

“I’m like, ‘Well, you are pushing 50, girl. At some point, things are going to change,’” she said in the cover story. “[That confirmation] made me feel better, but now I still have to manage it,” she says. “That means talking to my therapist when I feel this way, doing things to get me out of the muck.”

Brooke Shields, 61

Actress Brooke Shields has dispensed invaluable wisdom and interesting stories about aging over the years, and the same is true about her menopause journey.

During a fireside chat with Flow Space as part of the launch of her 2025 memoir Brooke Shields Is Not Allowed to Get Old: Thoughts on Aging as a Woman, Shields opened up about her menopause experience, which started with an on-set hot flash.

“I didn’t know I was going through it,” Shields explained. “I was filming a movie in Charleston. I was in a car, and I had this suede, hippy coat on. And it was as if buckets of water were dumped on my head.”

Shields had to stop filming and was shocked when the director asked if she was experiencing menopause symptoms.

“I was like, ‘What? No, that’s for old people!’ It was so funny that I had that immediate reaction, and I thought it was really interesting that that’s where our minds go,” said Shields.

Vanessa Williams, 63

Actress Vanessa Williams, 63, spoke to Hello! about using a GLP-1 for menopause-related weight gain in January 2025.

The Ugly Betty and The Devil Wears Prada Musical star called the drug “a game changer” and mentioned that she also uses hormone replacement therapy (HRT). “When I turned 60, I was like: ‘I want to be here for a long time, and I want to look my best,” she said.

“My 50s were hard. I started perimenopause in my late 40s but suddenly, at 51, it’s crazy how your body changes,” Williams told the magazine. “You feel out of control because you’re working out the same way, eating the same and your body is not reacting the way it used to.” 

Katherine Heigl, 47

Actress Katherine Heigl, star of Grey’s Anatomy and Firefly Lane, spoke to Business Insider in 2025 about how she’s handling starting perimenopause while raising three kids, including two teenage daughters whose own bodies are changing.

“Whoever designed it so that women would be going through perimenopause while raising teenagers should be sent a strongly worded letter,” she told the publication. “It’s really difficult. Their hormones are all over the place, they’re trying to adapt and get used to their new bodies and their new ways of thinking, and I am too. So the only thing I can do is look at them and go, ‘Well, at least we’re in it together.’“

She likened perimenopause to “having to relearn your whole system and body again” and mentioned that she deals with night sweats and sleep problems.

“I feel like it happens almost every 10 years. In my 20s, my hormones were crazy and tumultuous, and I was trying to figure myself out,” she added. “And then I had 10 years in my 30s where I had a good handle on it all, and then it all started shifting and changing again at about 40. Great.”

Misty Copeland, 43

Misty Copeland, the recently retired principal dancer of the renowned American Ballet Theatre, has been adjusting to what a life without her rigorous schedule of rehearsals looks like. For one thing, she said she’s experiencing perimenopause, except that she’s not having the symptoms most commonly associated with perimenopause like night sweats or hot flashes.

“There’s this blanket idea of what perimenopause looks like for women, but we’re all so uniquely different,” she told Oprah Daily. “But in the last year, I’ve felt like a teenager again in some ways. I’m getting acne. I’ve always been a good sleeper, but lack that really deep sleep throughout the night. And there’s brain fog. It can be hard to know what to attribute it all to (I do have a four-year-old). But being able to wrap my head around everything hormones can do, and to find some sense of grounding and control, was not something I expected, and has been really helpful.”

Judy Greer, 51

Actress Judy Greer, 51, didn’t initially recognize brain fog and mood dips as signs she’d entered perimenopause.

During a 2025 appearance on the Mayim Bialik’s Breakdown podcast, the 13 Going on 30 star shared that she thought she had depression and was “starting to toe-dip into mental illness” before learning that she was, in fact, perimenopausal.

“I did feel like everything was crazy, and I had all these symptoms and didn’t know what they were,” she told Bialik.

She also noticed a departure from her usual on-set self that quietly shook her confidence.

“There was even just a level of confidence I felt like I lost,” she explained. “I like to socialize at work, and I like to talk to people, and I like to make friends with the crew and all the people around. So, then, if I’m limiting that because I’m afraid of just forgetting the word for ‘vacuum,’ that sucks — and it made me feel sad.”

She discussed taking anti-depressants or taking birth control again with her doctors. She’s since been able to manage her symptoms and restore her confidence at work. “Hormones are kick ass if you can take them, I highly recommend,” she said.

Chrissy Teigen, 40

To mark her 40th birthday, Chrissy Teigen opened up about some of the struggles she’s had during perimenopause—and asked her followers for their best tips to manage symptoms.

“I love 40, but I hate sweating the bed. but I love pockets and my new hair. but I’m so tired. but I love feeling things again. but I’m so tired. my skin is changing. my period is back. I feel like a crazy person but I love 40 I really do!!! help,” the podcast host and cookbook author captioned her April 29 Instagram post.