An upcoming book to be published by Penguin Random House.

Autorentext
Naomi Watts is a renowned actor and producer. She has Academy Award nominations for her performances in 21 Grams and The Impossible, and is also known for starring in critically acclaimed projects such as Mulholland Drive, King Kong, and, more recently, Feud: Capote vs. The Swans. She is the founder and chief creative officer of Stripes Beauty, a company dedicated to raising menopause awareness and providing women with education, community, and solutions for a holistic approach to menopause.

Klappentext

NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER • A “refreshingly real” (People) guide to menopause and aging by beloved actress Naomi Watts, one of the leading voices in menopause awareness—with a foreword by Mary Claire Haver, MD, author of The New Menopause

“This book will resonate with women everywhere seeking guidance, solidarity, and the reassurance that they are not alone in their journey.”—Dr. Lisa Mosconi, author of The Menopause Brain

At thirty-six, Naomi Watts had just completed filming King Kong and was trying to start a family when she was told that she was on the brink of menopause. It is estimated that seventy-five million women in the United States are currently dealing with menopause symptoms (dry itchy skin, raging hormones, night sweats), and yet the very word “menopause” continues to be associated with stigma and confusion. With so little information, many women feel unprepared, ashamed, and deeply alone when the time comes.

This is the book Naomi Watts wishes she had when she first started experiencing symptoms. Like sitting down over coffee and having an intimate chat with your girlfriend, Dare I Say It blends funny and poignant stories from Naomi and her friends with advice from doctors, hormone experts, and nutritionists to take the secrecy and shame out of menopause and aging. Answering questions such as: What’s hormone therapy and should I be on it? Will I ever sleep again? Will I get myself back? What happened to my libido? Do I need eighteen serums for my aging skin? Whose body is this anyway? Who am I now? Naomi Watts shares the most up-to-date research on how to manage menopause symptoms and tackle the physical and emotional challenges we encounter as we age.

Irreverent, bold, and reassuring, Dare I Say It is the companion every woman needs to embrace the best version of herself as she moves into what can be the most powerful and satisfying period of her life.

Leseprobe
Chapter One

Discomfort Zone

When I was forty-two, not long after my second baby was born, I started having strong, consistent menopause symptoms. My most significant symptom was night sweats. But I had the occasional hot flash during the day, too. I remember two of them distinctly.

One time I was on a plane when a hot flash came on. In that moment, I felt like I was being suffocated. The heat was overwhelming, but the feeling was less like being in a warm climate than like being flooded with shame. I was overcome with the feeling Oh my God, I have to get out of here right now! But I was in a middle seat, and I’d already gotten up for the bathroom a couple of times—much to the chagrin of my seatmate, who’d given me plenty of side-eye looks—so I stayed hunkered down, wishing I could be anywhere else. If there had been an eject button, I would have hit it, right after flipping the bird to the dude in the aisle seat.

Another time, I was taking a fun trip with friends, and we were on a big boat in the Pacific Ocean. It was one of the first times I’d tried to take a glamorous vacation with my toddlers, and I was thrilled to be out on the water in a cute summer outfit. I was suddenly drenched. I barely had any clothes on, but I felt I had to remove even the stringy bits of fabric and dive into the ocean! Even if the boat was moving in shark-infested waters, I thought, I have to get in the cool water immediately.

“This was the year the wheels came off,” one woman told me about her own experience of realizing that she was entering a new phase of life. While she was having the classic symptoms related to blood vessel dilation and constriction (hot flashes, night sweats, heart palpitations), she started having symptoms in just about every area of her body: mood changes including depression, anxiety, irritability, and rage; skin changes, including somehow both dryness and oiliness; sleep trouble; hair loss on her head coupled rather cruelly with its growth on her face; vaginal dryness and associated sexual problems; loss of libido; migraines; brain fog; UTIs; GI issues; incontinence; and even ringing in the ears. It took her and her doctors a while to realize that they were all connected to menopause.

The symptom most strongly associated with menopause is the phenomenon known as “hot flashes,” or “hot flushes” in the United Kingdom. (Some doctors in the United States also prefer the term “flush,” because the sensation comes on more like an all-over drench than like a lightning strike, but I’m going to stick with “flash” in this book because I’ve spent the past thirty years in America, so it’s what I’m used to.) They can be among the more aggravating issues to deal with at this age, especially because they seem to come on at the least convenient times, since they can be triggered by stress.

My friend Sarah described her hot flashes to me this way: “One weird obsession became shifting my body to one side or another at night and touching the sheet, marveling at how it was as if someone had just removed an electric blanket set to level ten—so incredibly hot to the touch! The biggest surprise for me about hot flashes is how different they feel than just being superhot on a summer day. They are so intense and immediate. I’m feeling fine . . . feeling fine . . . Oh my God, someone get my fan! Throw ice on me! I don’t care if I’m fully nude in public!” She said this phase of life could be summed up as “ripping one’s clothes off while on college tours.”

I can’t tell you the number of women I’ve talked to who were in an important meeting at work or having a difficult conversation with a partner and suddenly they found themselves sweating profusely, feeling as though they were in a hot yoga class while everyone else was comfortable as could be. The first time I had a hot flash I thought, Who turned up the heat? Who is to blame for this? Like when your pants won’t button and you’re sure that the machine has shrunk them in the wash.

For me, night sweats were common even though I nearly have to kill myself in an exercise routine before I can work up a sweat. Even now, in spite of hormone therapy, I’ll wake with an occasional chest sweat, smelling like I’ve been flipping burgers in a fast-food joint all night. (Dermatologists have told me that middle-aged women increasingly are showing up in their offices for underarm Botox, which turns off the excessive sweating!)

One of my makeup artists says the first time she ever witnessed a hot flash was at work: “An actress was sitting in my makeup chair and said, ‘Oh my gosh, it’s coming. It’s coming!’ I said, ‘What are you talking about? What’s coming?’ And she said, ‘Look at my face.’ All of a sudden, her skin got really red, and beads of sweat started forming on her upper lip. This was a woman playing a leading lady and wearing sexy clothes. We got her some ice water, and we put cold compresses on her face until she cooled off.”

Hot flashes are caused by hormone fluctuation. The body’s thermostat gets thrown …