Michelle Obama speaks up about menopause and how she experienced it in a recent episode of Michelle Obama podcast, on Wednesday, accompanies by her friend and gynecologist Sharon Malone. She is always very open and personal in her podcasts and doesn’t shy away from discussing the topics that are considered taboo by society. This podcast was titled “What your mother never told you about health with Dr. Sharon Malone,” and the former first lady discussed her personal experiences of taking hormones, infertility, and menopause. She said it felt like someone had put a furnace inside her body and turned the temperature on high.
She said that her body felt like it was crumbling into pieces, and she wasn’t sure if she even was capable of going through this.
She also addresses that men have no idea what women go through, and as a society, we are told to shut up about it and shy away from explaining it earlier to our younger daughters. While we shouldn’t be taught to be silenced but to speak up and feel powerful to be able to endure period cramps, childbirth, over and over and then finally menopause which, she said was like getting stabbed again and again and turning the knife inside and you had to go through it again and again, while life continues to go on, you have to do everything that you normally would, while also facing the pain.
She also talked about former President Obama’s response to it and how he is now accustomed to it, and he doesn’t “fall apart” as his office was filled with female workers and he could see them drenched in sweat when they were going through the same, so he could understand their situation, and now he just goes like, ‘Oh, well, turn the air conditioner on.’
Michelle also discussed how women are considered unworthy and degraded them of their value when they reach a certain age, and while men are valued even more and how difficult it is to survive in such a society. Because women are considered worthy on the basis of what they look like and how old they “look” like.
Michelle also spoke about her own body image issues, saying, “I have hips, and thighs”, to which Malone added, “women’s value goes up with how little space you take up”. Dr. Malone explained that being healthy and thin are two different things and should be considered so. And that as a health professional, she focuses on telling women that and focusing more on how they felt instead of how they looked.
She also discussed body shaming and certain beauty standards set up by the society which continue to feel women uncomfortable and insecure about their bodies. She also discussed that the freedom of choice that women have to work a lifetime for is always accessible to men, and they don’t even need to work for it.
The complete podcast is available on Spotify.