Mood swings, hot flashes, hormones, low sex drive, oh my! While menopause may traditionally be a “taboo” topic, Tamsen Fadal is on a mission to change that. On the heels of the celeb-attended World’s Hottest Menopause Party held in Las Vegas earlier this month (guests included Stacy London, Sherri Shepherd, Carla Hall, Jennie Garth, Halle Berry and Naomi Watts, to name a few) and a best-selling book release, How To Menopause, Fadal is leading the charge for women’s health, wellness and empowerment with a no-shame, no-secrets attitude. We recently caught up with the powerhouse advocate, who is a wealth of information on everything from cutting-edge medical breakthroughs and fitness tips to navigating relationships and reigniting your love life (hello, Addyi!).
You are the expert in menopause. Has there been anything you learned this past month, either from the party or doing press for the book? Was there anything you walked away with that you didn’t know before?
Oh my gosh. So much! Menopause, as we know, is a natural life stage that all women are going to go through—if they are lucky enough—but it still is a taboo topic. There’s a lot of feelings of shame with it all, and there’s a lot of confusion. I feel like part of that conversation that was really important is understanding symptoms, understanding solutions and understanding that there should not be shame wrapped around that.
I’m sure you heard a ton of comments from women listening and reading. What is some of the most positive feedback you’ve received?
Yes, a thousand percent. When it comes to the positive part of it, the big one is: ‘Wow, I do not feel like I’m alone. I can’t believe I didn’t know this information, and thank you for sharing it!’ That’s what we need going into this. We need to know what we don’t know, and then we need to know some solutions. When we have that, it just feels a lot better.
I’d love to hear a little bit more about your own personal experience with menopause. I know losing your mom at a young age has a lot to do with your journey and backstory.
Yes, absolutely. I lost my mom when she was 51, and I was 20 years old. She died of breast cancer. When I went into menopause, I really didn’t have anyone to talk to about it, and, to be honest, I didn’t even know I was in it. I didn’t know I was in perimenopause or menopause. I found out in my patient portal from my doctor after blood work. It just said four words: “In menopause. Any questions?” And I didn’t have my mom to talk to about it. I thought my story was unique, and then I realized that women that even still have their mothers with them have not had that conversation.
At that point, I really realized, “Oh, this is something that we’ve all got to be talking about now.” We cannot be quiet about it. Why were we quiet about it for so long? It’s why I really look up to some of the different companies that are stepping forth with solutions for women and some of the different ways to solve things—whether it’s hormonal options or non-hormonal options because menopause comes with 34-plus symptoms, so we need solutions. We need a lot of solutions!
This is pretty open-ended and vast, but what do you think is one of the big things we still need to understand more of in regard to menopause?
I think there’s specific symptoms that we don’t realize and we’re very quiet about. One of them is heavy periods. Another one is body odor. Body odor is one that was really embarrassing for me…I would run into the bathroom and try to put paper towels under my arms to stop that smell. It’s one of the reasons I partnered with Secret Deodorant, who was part of the World’s Hottest Menopause Party. I realized that we don’t have those kind of conversations out loud because it’s embarrassing.
Persistent body odor is really normal during this stage and one of the many changes that come with menopause due to hot flashes or night sweats. It’s just disruptive all over. I love that Secret is one of those brands that has a clinical antiperspirant, a whole-body deodorant to combat that. And I love that they are talking about it!
I also think there’s a lot more we need to know about the brain fog. Brain fog is a really difficult symptom. I think those three are very tough ones that we don’t have conversations about because they are all tough to talk about.
What do you hope for the conversation moving forward? How can we talk about it more, and what else can we do?
That’s what it’s all about! We just have to talk about it. I have an educational partner, Let’s Talk Menopause, to try to educate women. If we are educating women, we’re in such a better place overall. I have a book, How to Menopause. I’ve partnered with Secret on the book to support it. I hope that companies will do what they’re doing, which is providing these educational materials for women. That is something that we can all get behind and we can all learn from. If we’ve got the educational part of that, then we can move toward the solution part of it, and that’s what I think is so important.
Having voices out there is also important. Stacy London and I filmed an episode of Hello Menopause! where we talked about all the embarrassing things: the hot flashes, the night sweats, the changes in body odor. All the menopause symptoms that we don’t want to hear out loud. The more we talk, educate and normalize, the more we’re going to get some solutions that we need.
