Michelle Obama is getting real about her health. The former first lady addressed how she really felt while going through menopause, while her husband was serving his first term as President of the United States.
On the Oct. 3 episode of her podcast IMO with her brother Craig Robinson, the Becoming author discussed her health with renowned OB/GYN health expert Sharon Malone. “It comes [suddenly], you wake up one day and you’re having hot flashes,” she recalled about her menopause. “It had to be in my mid-late 40s. I woke up one day and started having these severe bouts of heat flashing and sweating. I was like, what happened? I woke up and was different.”
Amid busy schedules and engagements, Michelle told herself, “I can get through this,” rather than contacting a health professional.
“I was the first lady so I’ve got speeches to give, I’m on planes, I’m [dressed up] and have my hair done,” she explained. However, the symptoms were too much to bear. “There was one trip I had about 40 hot flashes, and I was like, I can’t live like this. I can’t get off this plane soaking wet, I can’t factor in the time to change clothes and redo my hair during a day of speeches.”
The former first lady used hormone replacement to subdue the symptoms. “We need to talk about the symptoms because a lot of women aren’t even taught to be aware of what’s happening to their bodies,” she emphasized. “I want women to embrace tradition, because that’s still something we struggle with. We view transition as something negative, but we are always evolving and that’s a good thing.
In the end, Michelle emphasized the need for access to women’s health.”‘If we’re alive enough to have a transition then we’re blessed and we shouldn’t be ashamed of it. I’m trying – because it’s something you never stop working on as a woman – to figure out all the good and not get sucked into what I didn’t have or didn’t do because there’s still time ahead.”
She then described the present as the “best time of her entire life” despite the rumor mill that she and Barack are having marital issues.
“I do not wish to be 20 again, not in any way shape or form. There is some real freedom about this time in life. And I’m already thinking about my 70s and 80s, I want to be able to do some of this stuff in my 80s.”
The discussion comes weeks after both Michelle and Barack Obama had to shoot down divorce rumors. “There hasn’t been one moment in our marriage where I thought about quitting my man,” Michelle said in an episode where Barack was a guest.
In September, during an interview by historian David Olusoga, former President Obama responded to a question about his time post office with, “I was digging myself out of the hole I found myself [in] with Michelle,” according to the Daily Mail. “immediately I’m at about level ground.”
She even talked about how people shouldn’t look up to her marriage with Barack as the ideal marriage. “I try to be honest with the world, with the people who follow me and Barack, to our girls, because, you know, people look at our marriage as the ideal,” she said on her podcast. “In Instagram world, you see two loving people doing a hard thing in the world, always on stage, giving each other a hug after a big speech and making it look easy.”
“A lot of young people could look at that and go, ‘I want a marriage like Michelle and Barack.’ And it’s like, well, let me talk about what marriage is, because it’s even when it looks good, even when it’s great, it’s hard. And so I think it’s important because it’s very easy to quit on a marriage.”
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