The age of 43 has turned into night sweats for actress Naomi Watts. movie star Mulholland Drive And King Kongas well as the recent Netflix series watchmantalked about her menopausal symptoms because she was tired of the secrecy.
“It’s a taboo subject that no one talks about,” she told InStyle magazine in October. “Which is ridiculous because it’s just the bookkeeping of youth. . . . Now let’s share the knowledge and share the conversation and throw the ladder down to the younger generation so they can be better equipped.”
forbidden? Not if Celebrity Chat is a solution. Watts is one of a growing number of public figures speaking out about her declining progesterone and estrogen levels during perimenopause and menopause (which begins 12 months after periods stop), hot flashes (Michelle Obama), palpitations such as With a range of symptoms (Oprah Winfrey), sleep problems, dry skin and sexual discomfort (Davina McCall).
Such candor is not always entirely altruistic. Watts, who began perimenopause in her thirties, is the founder and chief creative officer of Stripes, a brand and community platform that offers advice on sleep, weight loss, and sex. It also sells skin, hair and vaginal care products to menopausal women. These are not cheap. The Power Moves facial serum sells for $85, The Dew Age Eye Do Moisturizer is $80, while a vitamin supplement pack called The Inside Edition costs $40 for 60 pills.
Actress Naomi Watts shares her experience with night sweats. , , © Getty Images
, , , While Oprah Winfrey opened up about the palpitations caused by menopause © Variety/Getty Images
Watts is hardly the only “meno-preneur” (sorry) to capitalize on a growing range of products targeted to menopausal women, prompting the description of the “menopausal gold rush.” Fast-fashion retailer Primark has a menopause sleepwear and lingerie range designed to cool down that inner furnace. Beauty brands No7 and Vichy, to name just two, have new skincare treatments designed to hydrate, plump and soothe menopausal skin. While the stalwarts of travel companies provide holistic relaxation for body and mind. Stacy London, an American magazine editor turned TV personality, organized a conference on the topic last year, The Menopause CEO Summit, which featured speakers from beauty and wellness brands.
Deborah Germain, a Reader in Film Studies at the University of Roehampton, has been researching this topic and identifies a recent “menopausal turn” in the culture underpinned by celebrities sharing personal stories. It is partly motivated by a desire for women who “do not want to fade out of the public eye as many of their older predecessors would have done and have a platform to agitate for change”. But it also reflects a growing candor about previously private issues such as mental health.
There are other reasons why these women are getting more attention as well. Older women are a growing and prosperous demographic. According to the World Health Organisation, the number of women over 50 is expected to account for 26 per cent of all women and girls globally in 2021, up from 22 per cent a decade ago. Looking ahead, the global market for menopause products is projected to grow from $15.4 billion in 2021 to $24.4 billion by 2030, led by growth in dietary supplements, according to Grand View Research.
Women are expected to work longer as the pension age rises across the world. Last year, the Fawcett Society, a charity campaigning for women’s equality, said that one in 10 menopausal women have given up a job because of their symptoms. Jermyn says there is an incentive for businesses to ensure welfare and provide support for female employees.
Mridula Por, co-founder and co-chief executive of Peppy, a digital healthcare provider for menopause and fertility, says that when the company launched in 2018, menopause was perceived as a “healthcare niche” while “for ages it has been hidden in plain sight”. The company, whose clients include Accenture and the Financial Times, recently raised $45 million in Series B funding from investors including Sony Innovation Fund.
Eileen Burbidge, investor and director at Fertify, a digital reproductive healthcare service, is optimistic about the sector’s growth. “When you have more attention and competition, you get more worthwhile products,” she says. “The void was so large that there is room for many [new businesses],
While it’s great that older women are appearing more on our screens and in our workplaces, there’s something tiresome about the menopausal transition. As I got older, time passed not only as rites of passage — adolescence, careers, relationships, kids — but also the creation of new consumer categories: teen bras, girl boss outfits, maternity wear, post-pregnancy diets. Even feminism became something more to buy with Dior’s £690 T-shirt emblazoned with the slogan “We Should All Be Feminists”. Now, middle-aged women are expected to not only weather physical changes but also re-brand themselves. Hot flushes are now power surges.
The risk is that this menopause movement becomes just another way of encouraging women to buy services and products. Women need to take a critical look at such professions, says author Rina Raphael gospel of well-beingJoe says the problem with the empowerment message is that any criticism can be construed as anti-feminist: “If you’re selling them bunk beds that’s not feminism.”
TV personality Stacey London to host ‘The Menopause CEO Summit’ in 2022 © Getty Images
Millie Kendall, chief executive of the British Beauty Council, says beauty products can address some of the changes to the skin, hair and body during menopause, but “we shouldn’t be misusing it and turning it into marketing hype.” [or to shame women] in buying a product”. This blurred line between consumerism and activism was recently acknowledged by Stacey London, who wrote in Fast Company magazine: “I was feeling more and more uncomfortable promoting a product – it felt like I was saying It was, ‘I need you to buy something’ ‘I want you to learn something.'”
Some argue that encouraging women to act on themselves misses the wider issue. A 2020 report by Standard Chartered Bank found that it was not only the physical and mental symptoms of menopause that were hindering the careers of women over 50, but also ageism.
Shani Orgad, professor of media and communication at the London School of Economics, sees parallels between the marketing of these new products and the advertising of estrogen products such as Premarin in the 1950s and 1960s, which encouraged both women and their husbands to take these hormone pills. I promised. The woman would once again become ‘pleasant to live with’ and ‘help keep her that way’.
“The empowerment messages we see today seem miles away from these notoriously sexist and ageist messages,” Orgood says. “But if you think about it, the messages and campaigns targeting menopausal women today are not that different in that they encourage women to ‘heal’ themselves.” [to] Keep women pleasant, calm and satisfied both at workplace and ‘housewife’.
Maybe that red haze serves a purpose?
