“I Knew About Hot Flashes And Night Sweats, But Not This”: Women Are “Petrified” After Penélope Cruz And Olivia Wilde Discussed A Shocking Perimenopause Symptom That They Had No Idea Existed

If you know Penélope Cruz, you’ll know that she’s long been outspoken about women’s health — particularly when it comes to menopause and perimenopause.

As board-certified OB-GYN Dr. Mary Claire Haver explained to BuzzFeed, “Perimenopause is when you begin to notice some of the symptoms when your body is starting to register that something's changing in your hormonal life. It can take 7 to 10 years until your period stops.” In other words, it refers to the time that the body naturally transitions into menopause.

Back in 2019, for example, Penélope — now 52 — said in an interview with Tatler magazine: “Hormones rule the world ... I bet you weren't expecting to talk about hormones. OK. Hormones. There are times in the life of a woman that have to be acknowledged, and understood and called by their name. There are too many taboos surrounding women's bodies and I think it equals a big lack of respect. You might be thinking, 'What is the relationship between hormones and respect?' It's completely related. Words like 'period', 'post-partum depression', 'menopause'. Even today, those words, you bring them up at a dinner table, everybody gets nervous. Even if it's a group of women, if men are also at the table, the energy gets very nervous.”

This week, Penélope and her The Invite costar Olivia Wilde, who also directed the film, candidly discussed perimenopause in a chat with Allure.

When Olivia asked Penélope to share the part of perimenopause that she thinks is least discussed publicly, the Vanilla Sky actor said, “It can last 10, 12 years. It can start as early as 40. The ups and downs can be crazy.”

“I remember when I was 41, and my doctor told me, ‘Your hormones are going to be doing this crazy dance for the next 10 or 12 years,'” she recalled. “I thought it was a really bad joke…I thought it was not possible to handle that.”

Penélope explained that because she frequently developed cysts in her ovaries, she did indeed experience extreme spikes in her hormones — and still does to this day. “People have to know, because you have to prepare yourself,” she said.

Olivia then asked Penélope to share one specific symptom that people “don’t often recognize is perimenopause.” “A lot of people have this idea that it’s going to be about hot flashes. That has never happened to me before,” Penélope said.

Olivia then interjected, “You taught me about the frozen shoulder thing,” referring to what is scientifically known as adhesive capsulitis. According to Midi Health, “frozen shoulder may occur during menopause when hormonal changes lead to shoulder stiffness and limited movement, often causing pain.”

After Olivia revealed that she learned about the frozen shoulder symptom from an unscripted scene in The Invite, where Penélope’s character Pína talks about perimenopause, Penélope credited the aforementioned Dr. Mary Claire Haver with giving her the knowledge.

“Now I just think about frozen shoulder all the time. I’m just waiting for my shoulder to freeze,” Olivia laughed.

Reacting to Olivia and Penélope’s candid chat, several internet users praised the duo for speaking so openly about what’s still viewed as taboo in many parts of the world. “I’m so glad we are finally having these conversations publicly, and my heart aches for my mom and grandma, and other generations of women before me who didn’t have access to knowing anything about perimenopause,” one Reddit user said.

“I’m really, really grateful to notable women like these two and Halle Berry for talking about menopause. It's an issue that will affect a huge swatch of the population, and yet there's still so little understanding or information, or preparation that is done to help us understand what is happening to us and our bodies. Having women like Penélope and Olivia and Halle talk about their experiences, their symptoms, and do it so frankly and honestly will only help us have the conversation as a society,” another person agreed.

“I’m so glad people are actually talking about menopause nowadays because so many things can be caused by it, and we're not taught most of those in school. At least I wasn’t,” someone else said, while another person echoed, “It is absolutely crazy how uninformed we are about women's health. I wish we were more open about it, so many women feel so alone when going through perimenopause.”

Meanwhile, several people admitted that they were “petrified” after learning about the frozen shoulder symptom. “TIL that my frozen shoulder (that I’ve had for eight months) is likely due to perimenopause. Not Penélope Cruz being better educated in the menopause than the myriad of male doctors I’ve seen over the past five years,” one person said.

“I’m 9 months into mine and had no idea until now as well. The doctor and I even discussed how our elderly mothers have experienced this. I knew about hot flashes and night sweats, but not this. It has been agonizing at times,” someone else wrote.

Check out the conversation for yourself here, and let us know what you think in the comments!

Some Reddit comments have been slightly edited for length or clarity.