Gwyneth Paltrow reveals drinking ‘every night’ during LA fires affected her menopause: ‘I was medicating’
LOS ANGELES, CALIFORNIA: Gwyneth Paltrow admitted her menopausal symptoms were aggravated when she resorted to drinking “every night” during the devastating Los Angeles wildfires earlier this year.
During a recent conversation with Dr Mary Clare Haver, OB-GYN and author of ‘The New Menopause’ in the latest episode of her 'Goop' podcast, the 52-year-old ‘Avengers’ actress came clean about how she resorted to alcohol to overcome the stress induced by the LA fires that decimated thousands of acres of Southern California.
Speaking at the March 4, Tuesday, episode of the podcast, the Goop founder noted that though her menopause symptoms were initially manageable, they spiraled “completely out of control” when she started drinking “every night” during the conflagration.
Gwyneth Paltrow shares her menopause symptoms spiraled out of control due to alcohol
While having a conversation with Dr Mary Clare Haver, Gwyneth Paltrow reflected on her alcohol consumption, and shared about her symptoms, “I’m really in the thick of it right now, so I’m all over the place," per the New York Post.
“But I noticed my symptoms are, like, pretty well under control unless, you know, in January when the fires were happening in LA. I’ve, like, used alcohol for its purpose,” continued the Oscar-winning actress.
While the conflagration ravaged thousands of acres of land, it also displaced tens of thousands of residents and killed at least 29 people.
Paltrow revealed earlier that while she and her husband - Brad Falchuk - were safe, “so many of our close friends… have lost everything.”
Owing to the “deep grief” she was feeling because of the devastation, the ‘Iron Man’ actress shared with Haver, “I think I drank every night.”
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She confirmed, “I was medicating,” and admitted, “Normally, now at this point, I don’t drink a lot at all. Maybe I’ll have one drink a week.”
Nevertheless, she revealed that the sudden resurgence in drinking affected her menopause, and that her “symptoms were completely out of control.” “It was the first time I really noticed, like, causation in that way,” continued the star.
However, Dr Haver said that it was completely normal.
She explained, “Lots of my patients say the same thing. They’ve really just spontaneously realized that they’ve cut back on alcohol or just quit altogether because it just hasn’t been worth it. They don’t bounce back the same way. It stays in our system a lot longer.”
Dr Haver, who wrote the foreword for Naomi Watts’ book on menopause, ‘Dare I Say It: Everything I Wish I'd Known about Menopause’, further added that she has seen her patients experiencing sleep disruption after resorting to alcohol daily, and noted, “Their hot flashes are horrible.”
Gwyneth Paltrow opens up about her insomnia
During the same conversation, Gwyneth Paltrow touched upon the subject of her menopause-induced insomnia. “I've always been a real sleeper,” Paltrow shared, but noted that after menopause, “I went through a particularly bad time with it," as reported by People.
“There were nights where my anxiety — like, I just thought it meant, ‘Oh, you're not gonna be able to sleep because you don't have enough progesterone or whatever,’” continued the ‘Shakespeare in Love’ actress before noting, “It wasn't that.”
She shared, “I would just wake up [and] I would get crushed with anxiety, which I've never had in my life. And I would lie in bed thinking about every mistake I've ever made, every person's feelings I ever hurt, like, every bad, you know, And I would be up, like, for six hours. It was crazy.”
Nevertheless, Paltrow shared, “I feel like hopefully I'm coming out the other side.”
“In perimenopause, we call it the zone of hormonal chaos,” explained her medical expert guest, before adding, “It's all over the place. It is completely unpredictable, and our brains hate chaos.”
Dr Haver continued, “It’s years for some women,” as Paltrow chimed in, “I feel like I've been in it for years.”
