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"You're just that dry old bag when you talk about menopause," Barrymore said. "And that is the conversation, the stigma that has to change."
Drew Barrymore is not shy when it comes to sharing difficult truths, but this time she's admitting that there's something she is nervous to share with her dates.
While talking with Oprah Winfrey alongside Maria Shriver, Dr. Heather Hirsch, Dr. Judith Joseph and Dr. Sharone Malone on OprahDaily.com, the actress spoke about how perimenopause affects her dating life.
"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 admitted.
Perimenopause, according to Johns Hopkins Medicine, is the "transitional time around menopause."
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Drew Barrymore Has 'First Perimenopause Hot Flash' While Interviewing Jennifer Aniston and Adam Sandler
View Story"I feel very confident, normally, and I want to be who I am and present myself," continued Barrymore. "But in that moment, I thought, I have to tell this story because it was a real life experience of, I'm so proud to be here. I'm an open book. But in that one moment, I was like, 'I don't want to say what it is, because I'm engaging in someone who I want to see me a certain way.'"
This led to a revelation for Barrymore that the idea of menopause could use a rebranding.
"If Mark Zuckerberg could rebrand Facebook to Meta, maybe we can do this for menopause," clarified Barrymore. "Because, we've got the word men-o-pause. Pause is a natural stop... to a lover that there might be something repellent about that subject. Whereas with no one else do I find this subject taboo."
"You're just that dry old bag when you talk about menopause," continued Barrymore, 48. "And that is the conversation, the stigma that has to change. We have to make it funnier, more sexy and more safe. Because the 'aha moment' is the safe."
This isn't the first time that Barrymore shared her experience with perimenopause. While speaking with guests Jennifer Aniston and Adam Sandler on "The Drew Barrymore Show", Barrymore shared that she was experiencing her first hot flash.
"I'm so hot. I think I'm having one of my first perimenopause hot flashes," she revealed.
Aniston laughed, "Oh, I feel so honored!"
"I'm so glad I have this moment documented," quipped Barrymore.
