Tracee Ellis Ross, 49, Gets Candid About Perimenopause: ‘It’s Really Frying My Brain’
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Tracee Ellis Ross, 49, revealed that she’s experiencing perimenopause right now.
“It’s really frying my brain,” the Black-ish star said in a recent interview, “but it is the most glorious invitation into a new season and chapter in my life.”
Despite experiencing “shame talking about it,” Ross says “I'm the sexiest I’ve ever been.”
Through her fearless roles and confident style, Tracee Ellis Ross has always used her platform to be unapologetically herself—and to help other women do it, too. Now, the multi-hyphenate is shattering expectations about a phase that’s often ignored altogether: perimenopause.
In an expansive new Harper’s Bazaar profile, Ross, 49, got candid about the changes she’s experiencing as she gets older. “I’m going through perimenopause at the moment. It’s really frying my brain,” the Black-ish actress revealed. “There’s no information about it. There’s shame talking about it.”
But rather than let the cultural stigma about the lead-up to menopause silence her, she’s actually looking forward to the opportunities it just might bring: “It is really bizarre, but it is the most glorious invitation into a new season and chapter in my life,” she said.
Perimenopause is the first stage of menopause, which typically occurs in people with ovaries' 40s, when ovaries begin to slow down estrogen production. Lasting between two and eight years, perimenopause can cause hot flashes, difficulty sleeping, vaginal dryness, and irregular periods, among other symptoms. Mood swings are also common.
The 49-year-old isn’t the only celebrity to open up about navigating perimenopause: In March, Gabrielle Union revealed that this stage exacerbated her existing mental health symptoms. “I thought I was losing my mind, she explained. “I thought I had early-onset dementia, Alzheimer’s. I gained 20 pounds overnight of water retention, inflammation—bizarre. I couldn’t think.”
Ross says her loved ones have shaped the way she sees this next chapter. “My friend Michaela told me, ‘This is an invitation into your wild-woman phase,’” she continued. “Another friend was like, ‘Your womb will no longer have to be thinking it’s going to make a baby. You can fill it with all your creativity. And I was like, ‘That’s right. I’m going to make babies of projects and things out of my womb.’”
“As a young girl, I had this woman that I dreamt of being,” she recalled in a 2018 InStyle interview. “The gift of age is that you actually get to have the boldness and the courage to be that woman. Some of the things I've discovered is that I actually like myself! And I like getting older.”
In fact, getting older has unlocked a whole new dimension of Ross’ self-understanding. “I’m the sexiest I’ve ever been. And when I say that, I mean I feel the most myself,” she told Harper’s Bazaar. “And it’s as if you get to this age and ... they’re going to cart me off in a canoe into no-man’s-land. F**k that. Shut up. I’m going to be sexy all over the place.”
As she should! We can't wait to see what this next phase of life has in store for the actress.
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