Gwyneth Paltrow Opens Up About Perimenopause: 'Quite A Roller Coaster'

Perimenopause and menopause have long been taboo topics, but lately, more women are speaking up about the life-altering changes that take many by surprise.

Actress Gwyneth Paltrow recently opened up on the topic sharing the "roller coaster" she's been on so that others feel less alone.

Paltrow, 51, is happy that the topic of menopause is now more openly discussed, and not as quiet as it was for her mother's generation.

"I'm glad that there is a big change in the culture and women are talking about this now," she told PEOPLE. "Because in my mother's generation that was not the case whatsoever."

Paltrow said she's now in the midst of perimenopause, which is the transition prior to menopause that can go on for years and cause a range of symptoms from hot flashes to insomnia to mood swings.

"I'm really in the thick of perimenopause, so it's quite a roller coaster and my best advice is that every woman really needs to contemplate what is the right way for her," she said. "For me, I've been really trying to focus on having a very well-functioning gut and liver so that these excess hormones can be flushed out of the body and cause less symptoms."

Gwyneth Paltrow said she was 45 years old when she first started to notice things shifting, but because menopause isn't talked about openly enough, many women don't always realize it's perimenopause that's causing the new symptoms.

"I just thought it was so strange that there was nowhere that I could go to understand if everything I was going through was normal," she said. "Now I'm getting my period every 18 days, or whatever came up."

The Goop founder feels that if we can continue to talk about menopause openly, it can help so many women understand that what's happening to them is normal and natural.

"There are a lot of great options available, whether it's HRT or different supplements, but I'm just glad everybody's talking about it because it used to be so full of shame and it's just another chapter for us," Paltrow explained. "It's nothing to be hidden. I think it's great, and I'm so happy that there's a community now, and these great startups springing up. There's all these platforms that are being created to help women through it."

Actress Gabrielle Union, 51, also recently shared her perimenopause struggles in the hopes of helping other women navigate through the process and feel less alone.

During an appearance on "The Drew Barrymore Show" recently, Union opened up about what she's been dealing with since she was 37 years old.

"All of these things, it's like, no one talks about it. They'd rather just say that you're crazy, or you're bitter or you're a B," Union said. "And you're like, I'm a human being and something is going on, and we need to all be very cognizant about that and compassionate with ourselves."

Barrymore then shared some of her journey.

"You just go through an emotional roller coaster, and you don't know what's happening and there aren't indicators there to help it make sense to you," she said. "So you just do whatever it is you can to be calmer so that you will be better for yourself as well as those around you."

For Union, she's had a variety of symptoms since finding out she's in perimenopause.

"It was the hot flashes, the night sweats that could happen at any time of the day, brain fog, mood changes, ongoing sadness, anxiety that felt more like terror, hair loss, and then random weight gain," she told PEOPLE. "That's when it really hit home for me."

Union recently partnered with Clearblue to help promote its Menopause Stage Indicator, a urine test paired with a health tracking app on your phone that can help give women an idea of what stage of menopause they are currently in.

"I love that through the app, you can not just track when your period came, you can document when you have symptoms, the severity of those symptoms, exactly what is happening. So when you are in the doctor's office, you have all the information that can tell the doctor everything that you've been experiencing in one place," she said.

"Anything that can help women advocate for themselves in a time that is usually shrouded by secrecy and is very taboo and nobody wants to talk about it, I'm going to do my best to make sure that women have resources and options and can learn new ways of advocating for themselves."