Naomi Watts says she was advised revealing that she’d hit the menopause at 36 would finish her Hollywood profession – and even drawing consideration to her age can be ‘profession suicide’

Hollywood actress Naomi Watts was warned her career would be over if she revealed she was menopausal.

The British-born star, who started experiencing symptoms at just 36, was told that even drawing attention to her age would be ‘career suicide’.

But now, aged 56, Ms Watts has spoken of her experiences of menopause in a new book aimed at challenging the stigma older women face in Hollywood.

The King Kong actress writes in Dare I Say It: Everything I Wish I’d Known About Menopause: ‘I was told I would never work again if I admitted to being menopausal, or even perimenopausal. 

‘Hollywood’s lovely term for such women was “unf***able”. I’d been warned ever since I started acting that calling attention to your age – when that age was not 23 or younger – would be career suicide.’

Ms Watts discovered the hot flushes and night sweats she’d been experiencing for years were signs of early menopause only after a visit to her doctor to find out why she couldn’t conceive.

‘“Looks like you’re close to menopause,” my doctor told me when I was 36 and wondering why I was having so much trouble getting pregnant. I almost fell off the examination table,’ she says in the book, an extract of which was published in The Times.

‘“What do you mean?” I said, gasping for air. “Close to menopause? That’s for grandmothers. I’m not even a mother yet. And, by the way, that’s what I’m here for, to become a mother. Take it back!”’

The British-born star, who started experiencing symptoms at just 36, was told that even drawing attention to her age would be ‘career suicide’. Pictured: In 2005 

But now, aged 56, Ms Watts has spoken of her experiences of menopause in a new book aimed at challenging the stigma older women face in Hollywood. Pictured: Ms Watts last week at the Golden Globe Awards

Watts says ‘I was told I would never work again if I admitted to being menopausal, or even perimenopausal’. Pictured: With her actor husband Billy Crudup

Ms Watts decided to write the book after coming to the realisation that there ‘is nothing sexier than a woman who knows what she wants’. 

Ms Watts adds: ‘One of the funniest things that’s happened as a result – random celebrities now text me regularly to tell me they’re in menopause.

‘It’s like I’m behind the confessional window or I’m Hollywood’s agony aunt. I was craving information on menopause, and certainly no one in Hollywood was breathing a word about it.

‘We were all behaving as if between the seductress years and the grandmother roles, women just… I don’t know, vanished?’