'We’re living like it’s not happening': Michelle Obama opens up about menopause
Michelle Obama made a point of breaking taboos about women’s health in the latest episode of her new podcast, talking about going through menopause in the workplace, weight, ageing and image.
In a conversation with Sharon Malone, a longtime friend and Washington DC-based obstetrician and gynecologist, the former first lady shared a story about having a hot flash while on Marine One, the presidential helicopter, before an event with then-president Barack Obama.
Related: Michelle Obama says she is suffering from 'low-grade depression'
“It was like somebody put a furnace in my core and turned it on high,” she remembered. “And then everything started melting. And I thought, ‘Well this is crazy, I can’t, I can’t, I can’t do this.’
“What a woman’s body is taking her through is important information. It’s an important thing to take up space in a society, because half of us are going through this but we’re living like it’s not happening,” she added.
Michelle Obama, 56, spent eight years as first lady at the White House while her husband Barack was president and they raised their two daughters, Malia and Sasha.
The former first lady said her husband had been “surrounded by women in his cabinet, many going through menopause and he could see it, he could see it in somebody, ‘cause sweat would start pouring, and he’s like, well what’s going on, you know, and it’s like, no, this is just how we live.”
She said he “didn’t fall apart because he found out there were several women in his staff that were going through menopause” but “was just sort of like, oh, well turn the air conditioner on …”
The Michelle Obama Podcast is part of a collaboration between Spotify and Higher Ground, the production company founded by the Obamas, and focuses on relationship and health issues, with a series of candid conversations between Obama and a variety of guests.
In the podcast, Obama also ponders the question: “Do you know a woman who’s happy with herself?”
Malone can’t cite one off the top of her head.
Malone says: “We’re always trying to fix or tweak something,” and Obama responds: “Yeah, and how exhausting is that?”
The two women mix laughter with serious talk.
Obama said: “Women of a certain age, we lose our value in society, unlike men, who gain value the older they get. And those images are propagated on television, where you see the frumpy, funny old guy with the young, vivacious … or even if she’s our age, she’s perfect.”
As first lady, she took on a campaign to encourage the public, especially young people, to exercise more and eat more healthily and converted part of the White House garden into a vegetable patch.
In the podcast episode, she continued on the theme of image: “The woman always looks a lot better than her husband in the movies, and it’s like, well, how is she with him? I’ve heard a lot of women my age … they feel less seen in a public place … no longer do heads turn.
“Women are rewarded for not looking their age, you know, it’s like, oh, she snapped back, she doesn’t even look like she ever had a baby – so that’s essentially saying, she doesn’t look like she’s maturing.”
Obama said she stands 5ft 11in tall “and I have hips, and thighs”.
Malone pointed out that, in terms of pressure for women to have a certain body type, too often in society “women’s value goes up with how little space you take up” but that being thin and being healthy are “two completely different things” and that as a health professional she focuses “more on function than form”.
Obama chuckled in agreement.
She talked of the pressure of women “keeping going” with busy jobs in professional clothes while some have severe hot flashes or acute period cramps that “feel like a knife being stabbed and turned”.
She wondered whether men could tolerate that, and called on society to acknowledge and have greater understanding of those issues, while celebrating “just how amazing we are”.
