Naomi Watts reveals intolerable menopause symptom that made her develop a skincare brand from scalp to vag

When she started speaking out about “the change,” Naomi Watts was worried about branding herself as a “menopausal lady” in Hollywood.“Agism is alive and well.I was nervous about it, but I thought: If I can help a few, that would be meaningful.

And it turns out it wasn’t career suicide,” she said at an event at Credo Beauty in Manhattan on Tuesday.At 56, her acting career is still thriving — but she’s also got a whole personal care company, Stripes Beauty, that she says address menopause issues “from scalp to vag.”Watts started going through menopause earlier than most.This was 20 years ago — long before it had been rebranded as “cougar puberty,” and even before the term “perimenopause” was widely ised.“At 36, I was trying to start a family and I wasn’t getting pregnant,” she recalled.Her doctor ordered some bloodwork and told her she was “close to menopause” — not something she was happy to hear.“And it was just ‘boom.’ And I left the office in pieces,” she said.Fortunately, she was able to get pregnant not once but twice.

But once she stopped breastfeeding her second child, she began experiencing “hardcore symptoms” and started on hormone replacement therapy (HRT).“I dealt with my symptoms pretty early, which I was very happy about.But I still didn’t know much about it, and I still didn’t know [about] all of these other things that were happening in my body were related to menopause,” she said.“One of the main things that really was intolerable for me because of my work was itchy, aggravated, sensitive, raging skin,” she went on.The loss of estrogen during menopause can lead to lots of symptoms, including dehydration.

That’s why so many women experience vaginal dryness — but that dryness doesn’t just happen down below.It can also affect your skin, your scalp and your body as a whole.“I didn’t know that,” Watts admitted.

“And so I was messing around with my products, going, ‘Oh,...