I’m here for celebrity women being open and honest about menopause symptoms. I’m 51 and it does hit you fast and hard and make you question reality. So many celebrity women have been open and honest about what they’re going through in menopause and I’m grateful for that. Most recently Halle Berry described a common and less-talked-about symptom that affects our sex lives. Props to her for that.
Niecy Nash, 54, is representing a company called Versalie, which offers menopause-related supplements and nutrients. In a new interview with People Magazine, she said that she only recently learned that irritability, dry skin and thinning hair can be attributed to menopause.
“I got hot and then I kept getting hot and I was like, ‘Sound the alarm. This is it’,” says Nash, 54, of experiencing hot flashes for the first time, which led her to realize she’d entered menopause. “It’s that heat you can’t control, no matter how cold it is in the room.”
Indeed, one night “I fell asleep with a wig on,” she says. “I guess I got hot in the middle of the night and took it off. I woke up the next morning and screamed to the top of my throat because I thought it was a dead body in the bed…
“When you don’t know what you don’t know, then you don’t know what it’s related to,” she says. “I thought, ‘Oh, I’m having menopausal hot flashes’ and that was the extent of it. I did not relate the fatigue, because every woman I know is tired. Your scalp being dry, hair thinning, you don’t relate it to menopause. Those were some of the things I just didn’t catch.”
Another tricky symptom she’s dealt with: mood swings. “I always have something to say, but when it happens I get very quiet and want to go off by myself because everything that you say or do irritates me,” she says of trying to cope during those moments. “It’s like, I’m going to go over here and sit down and shut the door and please don’t knock.”
I’m definitely more tired and achy than I was a couple of years ago. So far anxiety is the most troubling thing I’ve noticed. I was getting so much anxiety with my regular three cup a day morning coffee habit that I had to cut down to one. That has helped somewhat. I also wake up warm in the middle of the night sometimes. It’s not flow blown night sweats yet, although that might be coming.
I looked through Versalie’s vitamins and supplements and one of the first results is for ashwagandha. My more holistic-based doctor recommended that to me for menopause, and she also mentioned Estroven. (I can’t take Estroven as I am allergic to some of the ingredients.) Ashwagandha made me feel so weird and zombie-like, which I’ve since learned is a common side effect. I’ve been taking low THC/CBD gummies lately and that does seem to help, although maybe I’m just getting a little high. The prescription Estradiol can help with vaginal dryness and I’ve been recommended that as well. There’s no pill or treatment that works for everyone, but at least we’re talking about it and at least there are options.
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