Stripes Beauty Creates National Hot Flash Day; Naomi Watts Shares More

When she was 36 years old, actress and entrepreneur Naomi Watts started experiencing irregular periods, night sweats, and more. As she told People magazine, her doctors dismissed her symptoms as just “stress or something”, leaving her to turn to Google and try to figure out the root of these changes on her own.

Now Ms. Watts knows that her symptoms were related to menopause. Perimenopause usually begins when women are between 40 and 44 years old, and menopause usually begins when women are between 45 and 55; while irregular periods and night sweats are common symptoms, her doctors believed that – at 36 – she was too young to be experiencing these conditions.

From this place of “deep personal and collective frustration” – as she wrote to Forbes in an email interview in September 2024 – came Stripes Beauty: the menopausal wellness brand of which she is the Founder and Chief Creative Officer. “I wanted to create a space where women could openly talk about menopause and access solutions that genuinely support them, no matter what part they are in, and the highly specific experience they are having,” she said.

As she noted, menopause is a “completely natural phase of life that [women] all go through”; in fact, all menstruating women will experience menopause and will spent more than 1/3 of their life in perimenopause, menopause, and post-menopause all together. But this health field remains under-studied, leaving women under-served. Generally, most medical students will receive only an hour-long lecture about menopause, at best; specifically, in 2023, only 31.3% of OB/GYN residents reported that their program even had a menopause curriculum. Because of this lack of education, only 20% of practicing OB/GYNs feel comfortable discussing and treating menopause and, while 47% of women said their menopause-related symptoms “sometimes” to “consistently” disrupted their daily life, 73% aren’t currently treating their symptoms.

Of the symptoms across the menopause journey – perimenopause, menopause, and post-menopause – hot flashes are one of the most common. Ms. Watts added, “Hot flashes are something so many women experience yet they often face them in isolation or at undesirable – and often uncomfortable – times”.

To shine a spotlight on this symptom, Stripes Beauty is launching the first-ever National Hot Flash Day on September 9, 2024. “By dedicating a day to this symptom, we are shining a spotlight on it, bringing it into the open, and fostering a broader conversation,” Ms. Watts explained. “It’s all about acknowledging these experiences and creating a supportive community where women can feel seen and understood.”

And she hopes that the National Hot Flash Day campaign will reach men as well as women – since men’s awareness of and reactions to menopause can be wide-ranging. One study found that men were aware that their partners had regularly experienced symptoms, such as difficulty sleeping and lack of energy; 26% correctly attributed these symptoms to menopause. 72% had talked to their female partners about their menopause-related symptoms, and, of the 79% who reported that they had taken additional actions in response to their partners’ menopause symptoms, 31% said that they were trying to be “more patient/supportive/compassionate” toward their partners.

However, when asked how they would describe menopause to other men, the most common response – given by 22% of participants in another survey – described the irrational or emotional mood of their partners. Some men with partners experiencing menopause even reported that they themselves were more negatively affected by the symptoms than their female partners were.

Most recently, in 2022, more than half of male participants didn’t know that many women have been forced to reduce their hours or give up work entirely because of menopausal symptoms. As of that year, 54% of women had encountered at least one menopause-driven work challenge: of the nearly 40% who took time off due to perimenopause or menopause symptoms, 71% lost more than one full week of work time, 30% lost more than a month, and 59% felt the need to conceal why they were taking time off in the first place. In total, according to Mayo Clinic, the United States is losing more than $26B annually “due to the failure to address the effect of menopause on working women”: $24.8B is due to direct medical expenditures and $1.8B is due to these lost workdays.

National Hot Flash Day, thus, can help highlight these challenges, both this year and in the years to come. Going forward, Ms. Watts expects to see the campaign evolve: to include “more diverse voices and stories”, to expand beyond hot flashes “to cover a broader range of symptoms and experiences”, and to see increased involvement from various sectors, including “more brands, healthcare providers, and communities joining together to support and educate”.

After all, there are various opportunities for improvements not only with menopause but with women’s health overall. As Ms. Watts put it, menopause is just one example of the “staggering” gender health gap: women spend 25% more time in poor health compared to men, working women in the United States pay an estimated $15 billion more than working men on healthcare costs per year, and the National Institutes of Health (NIH) allocates only about 11% of its budget to women’s-health-specific research. For a specific example, in 2019, there was five times more research into erectile dysfunction (which affects 19% of men) than into premenstrual syndrome (which affects up to 90% of women).

Addressing the gender health gap could potentially boost the global economy by at least $1 trillion annually by 2040 while the global market for menopause itself is projected to reach nearly $27B by 2031. About 75 million women are in perimenopause, menopause, or post-menopause right now in the U.S – though only about 8% of these women say they were very prepared and informed for the overall experience of menopause.

Menopause, though, has seen more public attention in the past few years than it has in the past. Celebrities like Ms. Watts, Drew Barrymore, Halle Berry, Oprah, and more have openly shared their menopause-related experiences, various senators have supported a bipartisan bill – called the Advancing Menopause and Mid-Life Women’s Health Act – to expand education, funding, and support for menopause, and PitchBook Data shows that funding for companies addressing menopause has collectively reached over $1.7B from 2013 to 2023. As Ms. Watts summarized, “In Hollywood and beyond, amplifying women’s voices and experiences is key. Advocacy, education, and supportive storytelling can drive real change and ensure that women’s health issues get the recognition, research, and funding they desperately need.”

National Hot Flash Day is one positive step forward in driving this “real change”. Ms. Watts also believes that society “is on the cusp of a much broader and more positive societal shift” that can include more research, more innovative solutions, and an overall culture change towards “embracing and normalizing this phase of life”.

For the women who are approaching or going through this phase of life, Ms. Watts recommends “educate yourself and what’s happening to your body and seek out resources that resonate with you. Don’t hesitate to consult with healthcare professionals who can offer personalized guidance and take a vested interest in what you’re going through”. She adds, “It’s crucial to understand that menopause is a natural transition and taking proactive steps for your health can make a significant difference. It’s important to have people around you who understand and validate your experiences rather than pushing them off to the side”. When she herself was experiencing menopause-related symptoms at 36 years old, she had doctors who did push her symptoms “off to the side” and subsequently had to research, learn, and advocate for herself; now, though – through Stripes Beauty and the new National Hot Flash Day campaign – she is ensuring that other women don’t have to do the same.