While women have long complained about the negatives of menopause, Kelly Ripa has recently discovered one benefit of going through the process.
In a recent episode of her podcast, Let’s Talk Off Camera With Kelly Ripa, the Live With Kelly and Mark host discussed an under-appreciated aspect of menopause that she recently experienced herself.
“I love not getting my period,” Ripa, 53, told her podcast guest and her real-life hormone doctor, Dr Erika Schwartz. The TV personality said that she experienced the beginning of menopause during the Covid-19 pandemic. Menopause, according to the Mayo Clinic, marks the time in a person’s life when their menstrual cycle ends and they no longer get their period.
However, Ripa recalled the moment she learned of a main upside to menopause - the ability to wear white pants without fear of getting her period. “My first Memorial Day through Labor Day after menopause… it was the summer of the white pants because I never had to worry about wearing white pants,” Ripa recalled.
The All My Children alum went on to speak with Dr Schwartz about the misconceptions of menopause, and how many people still consider the topic to be taboo. “People still whisper the word menopause,” she said, adding that “the information is still so hidden”.
Her hormone doctor agreed, noting that “we’re still in the Dark Ages” when it comes to menopause and described the process as “like a bad secret”.
Ripa said that even her friends of the same age are in denial going through menopause. She revealed that some of her friends routinely “tell me they still get their periods regularly”, while others consider the process to be “embarrassing”.
“They’re talking to me, an open book, and still cannot bring themselves to talk about having gone through menopause. It is too scary for them to acknowledge,” she said.
Dr Schwartz maintained that some women have trouble opening up about menopause because they feel it’s a sign that they’re “no longer useful” in society.
“Because, in this day and age, there’s still a lot from yesterday’s day and age that has permeated the society and culture,” the doctor said. “And we think that being aged beyond menopause, we’re no longer useful.”
“The moment you’re no longer fertile, you’re not useful,” Dr Schwartz continued. “I think you’re very useful. That’s when you have the information, the experience. You have so much to bring to the table, that I think every woman should feel great about herself.”
Ripa has been married to husband Mark Consuelos since 1996. The longtime couple share children Michael, 26, Lola, 22, and Joaquin, 20.
The TV host previously revealed that when she first started going through menopause, she mistakenly thought that she was pregnant. Speaking to Haute Living about her book, Live Wire: Long-Winded Short Stories, in 2022, she recalled the moment she believed her husband had accidentally “got [her] pregnant”.
“I started taking pregnancy tests daily, but then Mark sort of gingerly said: ‘Could there be another reason why you’re not getting your period?’ and me saying: ‘What other reason could there possibly be?’ He really had to walk on eggshells here [by explaining to me that I was probably going through menopause],” Ripa said.
However, she ultimately felt relieved that she wasn’t pregnant. “I was really grateful that I was not going to have to explain to my kids that they were about to meet their new sibling,” she joked.
