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Health
As a new ambassador for menopause support platform Versalie, Niecy Nash is promoting “more transparent conversations.”
If it seems menopause is a hot topic these days, you’re not mistaken. Some of Hollywood’s most respected, beloved and award-winning talents have been speaking out about the not-so-glamorous symptoms that accompany advancing into middle age. Emmy Award-winning actress Niecy Nash is the latest to share her experience with “the change,” speaking about the initial onslaught of symptoms, both subtle and startling.
“I got hot, and then I kept getting hot, and I was like, ‘Sound the alarm. This is it,’ ” Nash shared with People magazine. “It’s that heat you can’t control, no matter how cold it is in the room.”
As anyone who has followed Nash’s career might expect, even in the midst of discomfort, some hilarity inevitably ensued.
“I fell asleep with a wig on,” the 54-year-old recalled. “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!”
While hot flashes are the most common symptom associated with menopause, Nash noted several others that aren’t always as readily identified.
“I thought, ‘Oh, I’m having menopausal hot flashes,’ and that was the extent of it,” she explained. “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.”
The symptoms often aren’t just physical. In fact, there are at least 20 symptoms associated with menopause, and potentially more than 30, including anxiety, lack of libido, insomnia, loss of confidence and mood swings. Unfortunately, most individuals entering menopause are largely unprepared for the wide range of adverse symptoms that can accompany this stage of aging.
“So many doctors are not trained in it … It wasn’t even a conversation I had with my medical professional until I got to this point right now,” said Nash, who is now an ambassador for the online menopause support platform Versalie. “I’m telling everybody,” she later added. “I was literally on the red carpet with Tabitha Brown and Vivica Fox; we all started getting hot at the same time, and I was like, ‘I got you. Go to this website.’”
The advocacy of Nash and other well-known women is needed, especially by Black women, who “can often go without adequate care during menopause,” noted Versalie, which has partnered with doctors across racial demographics. A 2022 scientific review found that, on average, not only do Black women enter menopause eight-and-a-half months earlier than white women, but they experience a greater severity of symptoms and are less likely to receive interventional treatments like hormone therapy. Strikingly, menopause also heightens the risk of developing other health issues like osteoporosis and heart disease, the latter of which also disproportionately affects Black women.
TheGrio Lifestyle
TheGrio Lifestyle
Associated Press
Haniyah Philogene
Monique Judge
TheGrio Lifestyle
Maiysha Kai
TheGrio Lifestyle
“Utilizing the resources on this digital platform, now I’m like, ‘I can talk to somebody, I can find products, resources and a sense of community,” said Nash, who is currently choosing to treat her symptoms with “holistic remedies.”
Most importantly, Nash told people she is eager to push beyond the stigma of menopause and increase awareness and comfort among Black women in discussing a very natural “change of life.”
“There are some things in my social groups that had not been talked about, menopause being one of them,” she said. “So to be able to open the door to have more transparent conversations about it, I think just moves us a little further forward together and knowing what is happening with our bodies. And I feel like in our community, sisterhood is so important.”
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