If you have a uterus, barring certain medical abnormalities, you will go through puberty, menstruation, and menopause at some point. oh! And perimenopause. Unfortunately, these topics are not often discussed openly in public settings or at home. For example, my spell checker couldn’t even decipher the word “perimenopause!”
Actress Hilary Burton hopes to change that and tells people She starts with her children, son Gus, 14, and daughter George, 6, whom she shares with husband Jeffrey Dean Morgan.
“As a mother, that’s really important,” one tree hill alum told the outlet. “We’re raising a new generation of kids who are talking about this from the beginning. It’s not a secret, they learn it over the course of decades of their lives.
Burton said she tried to connect with Gus on these issues, particularly through a kind of life-cycle empathy, emphasizing the similarities between adolescence and perimenopause, the symptoms she said kept her going Surprised in my 30s. (because: surpriseso few people actually want to talk about it.
“I was talking to my teenage son about how I was going through hormonal changes and he was going through hormonal changes,” she explained, recalling a particularly emotional moment he experienced. “I was like, ‘Man, this isn’t real. It’s a chemical reaction in your body that makes it feel bigger than it is, just like my mom sometimes freaks out because of the chemical reaction in my body. I can. Having these conversations with your children can really help.
She hopes openness can help combat the stigma that has long shrouded “basic human functioning.”
“We have to expose our children to subjects that were once considered taboo,” she said before joking. “This is your first test on a man: give him a tampon. If you can’t do it, we’re screwed.
Ultimately, Burton hopes that being open about the human body with her children will foster better empathy and communication not only within her family, but in the wider world.
“I think we’re going to not only get more care, but we’re going to get more support from the community. … My job is to make menopause so common so that people not only look forward to menopause, but also in the workplace, at home, wherever Menopause is supported both within the relationship and with children.
