Salma Hayek is getting candid about experiencing menopause. The 54-year-old actress appears on the latest episode of Red Table Talk, streaming on Facebook Watch on Wednesday, and talks about her uncomfortable visit to the doctor.
When asked by Jada Pinkett Smith’s mom, Adrianne Banfield-Norris, if she’s currently experiencing menopause symptoms, Hayek replies, “Oh my god, yes.” The Eternals star says she’s actually been experiencing symptoms since her mid-40s. According to the Mayo Clinic, menopause is the time that marks the end of one’s menstrual cycles and can happen in your 40s or 50s, but the average age is 51 in the United States. Symptoms can include hot flashes as well as emotional symptoms that can lower your energy and affect your emotional health.
“I had to take a test,” Hayek shares. “And the questions were terrifying. They were asking me things like, ‘Are your ears growing and there’s hair coming out of them? Are you growing mustache and a beard? Are you easily irritable? Are you crying for no reason? Are you gaining a lot of weight really fast that doesn’t go away no matter what you do? Are you shrinking?'”
“And then they ask you, ‘Is your vagina dry?'” she continues, as both Pinkett Smith and her daughter, Willow Smith, are visibly shocked. “And then I thought to myself, it doesn’t matter if you have hair coming out of your ears and nose and a mustache and a beard!