Naomi Watts is talking about lube, and she wants us to join in. Sick of the secrecy and shame around menopause and the vaginal dryness that comes with it, Watts posted to her Instagram page on Tuesday, saying that she hopes people will “take menopause and yes, dry va-jay-jay’s, mainstream.”
Watts, who owns a menopause-solutions brand, re-created a Johnson & Johnson ad she starred in as a 15-year-old, where she is pictured asking, “When can I start using tampons?” Using a more recent photo, she replaced the text with “When can I start using lube?”
“What kind of Dry January have you had … Dry AF … am I right?” she wrote in the caption, adding, “Why is it that we can talk about periods and puberty with ease, but when it comes to menopause, and yes, drrrryness … we all get a little skittish …”
In the post, Watts said that the lack of information and the misinformation around menopause put women in the “shadows of secrecy and shame.” Watts previously told the Cut that when she found out that she was going into early menopause at 36, she felt alone. “No one else in my age group was talking about it,” she said. Her company, Stripe, has been selling products that address some of the challenges that come with menopause, including dryness. The company offers and sells a variety of ectoine-based moisturizing skin-care solutions for the face and body, lubricants, a cooling spray, and a vaginal probiotic.
It seems Watts is taking OB/GYN Jen Gunther’s words to heart. Those words: “Lube for all of my friends.”