Naomi Watts Says Menopause Made Her Feel Isolated

You know Naomi Watts from tons of TV shows and movies — she’s basically a legend in the game at this point.

While appearing at the Frangrance Foundation Awards (which, as you can see from this picture, she also gave a speech at), Naomi spoke to Page Six about her experience with menopause.

Naomi told the publication that, for her, menopause happened “far too early” and that she “wasn’t prepared” to experience it when she did.

“It was a shock and no one gives you any preparation,” she explained.

“I did have in the back of my mind that my mother went early but I didn’t know what that meant. I didn’t know that you could have eight years of peri-menopause.”

Naomi said that the arrival of menopause made her feel “very isolated,” and that even though she experienced multiple symptoms in its onset, the most “immediate” she had to tend to was itchy skin.

“One of my greatest symptoms was really itchy skin,” she recalled, “and my skin is obviously very important to me because of work on camera.”

Naomi also spoke on the stigmatization that surrounds menopause that has gone on “far too long,” as well as her “intention to support women through this phase of life.”

“Women have been forced to silence themselves and feel ashamed,” she said. “But it’s been the plan for the body all along. It’s not a failure, it’s not a disease.”

Naomi concluded that she wants people who experience menopause to know that post-menopause can be a “liberating time.”

“You can make choices that are authentic and connected to you.”