“Dare I Say It”, is subtitled, “Everything I Wish I’d Known About Menopause”. Being female has never been a walk in the park for Ms. Watts. She was last in her class to have her first period at eighteen, needed the guidance of Cosmopolitan Magazine and Sidney Sheldon novels (anyone remember those?) to learn the fundamentals of masturbation. After some initial struggles as a young actor, her career has been astonishingly successful. Later, during a long relationship with fellow actor Liev Schrieber, she decided to get pregnant in her thirties and discovered it wasn’t as easy as she thought it would be. However, in the double swirl of international movie productions and visits to fertility clinics, finally, finally, finally she’s pregnant at 38, and again at 41.
This is all described in a great chapter, “My Infertility Story”, as when she first feels her baby moving during a harrowing motorcycle ride during the shoot of the movie “Eastern Promises”.
But a series of physical and emotional symptoms that also start in her thirties really left her puzzled: changes in her period, frequent bladder infections, mild depression, less energy, hot flashes, night sweats, vaginal dryness. These sounded ‘menopausal’, but she was so young!
She called her mother and asked about menopause. Mom was at 45 at menopause. That was years ahead.
She went to her internist (“everything’s fine”), ob-gyn (“hormone’s are good but this all sounds like premenopause”).
This was a real shock. She was having all these symptoms, was dating (and would marry) another hunk, Billy Crudup. Her doctors suggested hormone replacement.
And so, probably with the same diligence that drove Ms. Watts to the upper echelons to the acting profession, she went about learning just about everything there is to know about perimenopause and menopause. She devotes whole chapters of “Dare I Say It” to declining libido (and improving it), sexual health, brain fog, skin and hair changes, sleep, nutrition and exercise.
From my own perspective, as a physician writing hormone replacement therapy prescriptions now for four decades, her two chapters on hormones are about as clear and reassuring as anything you’ll find. I fully agree with all the current data about women who remain on hormone replacement therapy their entire lives: longevity, less risks of heart disease, dementia, osteoporosis, strokes. If your doctor “doesn’t believe in hormones for women”, or says, “time to stop those hormones” (for no good reason), then find another doctor. Ms. Watts swears by them.
Her recommendations on weight gain are interesting: of course diet management and exercise but if all fails, if you can afford it, go for the GLP-1 peptides like Wegovy or better yet Zepbound.
My only minor quibble with “Dare I Say It”, is that Ms. Watts has no suggestions about some of the very effective natural treatments for menopause symptoms. Herbs like black cohosh, red clover and ginseng are often combined in “Menopause Relief Formulas” and are quite effective. You can read about them here. However (and this is a big “however”) herbal formulas give you none of the protective benefits of hormone replacement therapies.
If you’re interested in any of this, order a copy of “Dare I Say It” and schedule a visit with any WholeHealth Chicago practitioner.
Be well,
David Edelberg, MD
Thank you for this article. I’m recovering from breast cancer treatment and about to take tamoxifen. Before I had to stop taking HRT, I had awful perimenopausal symptoms and did ten years of natural options before giving into HRT. Now I’m worried that I’ll be losing the protective nature of estrogen and the symptoms are all raging back all to offset a potential recurrence of breast cancer. How do people navigate this? I know I’m much more likely to die of heart disease than cancer.
Kim