Shania Twain, 60, said menopause helped her be more confident about her body.
Speaking to The Times in an interview published on Saturday, Twain said she struggled with her body image during her 2019 Las Vegas residency. She recalled tearing two thigh muscles and having to be carried off stage after becoming “malnourished” in her efforts to “be thinner.”
“In menopause you lose control of your body,” Twain told The Times. “So all of a sudden I’m bloating and I’m definitely not in control. I can’t just lose five pounds.”
The “That Don’t Impress Me Much” singer said she wasn’t able to look at her own reflection before going on stage.
“I stopped looking at myself in the mirror. I hated my body. I’m, like, ‘Oh, I cannot stand this changing body.’ But that was so unhealthy. Who cannot look at themselves in the mirror?” she said.
Driven by her insecurities, Twain turned to intense workouts and cut out fats and sugars from her diet.
“I was doing very unhealthy things,” she said. “And I was working my body more than I was feeding it, to keep up with the strain.”
Her thigh injury worsened, and as her recovery dragged on, she began rethinking her relationship with her health.
“Now I’m, like, bring on the mirrors, I’m going to look at myself all day long!” Twain said. “Menopause has been very good for me because I’ve learnt that some things you cannot control.”
Twain has previously said that menopause helped her put her insecurities into perspective.
“Menopause taught me to quickly say, ‘You know, it may only get worse. So just love yourself now. Just get over your insecurities — they’re standing in your way. And fear is standing in your way,'” she told The New York Post in 2023.
Other Hollywood stars have also shared their experiences with menopause.
Katherine Heigl told Business Insider in July that navigating perimenopause while parenting teenagers gave her and her kids unexpected common ground.
“Their hormones are all over the place, they’re trying to adapt and get used to their new bodies and their new ways of thinking, and I am too. So the only thing I can do is look at them and go, “Well, at least we’re in it together,” Heigl said.
In January, Gabrielle Union said menopause initially made her feel like her “value as a woman” was “diminishing.”
Over time, however, she came to see the transition in a different light. “It challenges you to look at life differently — and not as an ending, but as a beginning,” Union said.
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