Sail through menopause

Hormone replacement therapy is back in fashion. Celeste McGovern looks at the risks and alternatives

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Aging is a rough ride for many women. Even those who have it all, like supermodel Brooke Shields—still beautiful at 59—admit to being surprised when the first signs of menopause hit them.

In her recently released memoir, Shields says she had her first perimenopausal hot flash while on a set filming in 2016. “The makeup artist couldn't mop me down fast enough,” she said, and they had to pause the filming while she applied ice water and Sea Breeze astringent to her neck to cool down.

She was 50 then but was still shocked by the signature symptom of waning hormones signaling the end of her fertility. “It just wasn't on my radar,” she wrote, “which is maybe strange but, I've also learned, entirely common.”

These days, however, it's hard to avoid stories about menopause and the symptoms of declining hormones in midlife and beyond. Even celebrities openly share their struggles with hot flashes, brain fog, “crime scene” heavy periods, irregular periods, dry skin, flagging libidos and fatigue.

Platforms like X and Instagram are buzzing with hashtags like #MenopauseMatters and #MenopauseAwareness as women post about mood swings, forgetting people's names, midlife acne, frozen shoulder, weight gain on the tummy and tinnitus.

There's now an International Menopause Day (October 18), and organizations like the North American Menopause Society and the British Menopause Society are demanding greater public attention to the phase that defines 40 percent of a woman's lifespan on average. Popular books on the subject say women should demand HRT to avoid the frail aging their mothers suffered.

A star in this menopause movement is ob-gyn Mary Clare Haver, author of The New Menopause