Soha Ali Khan opens up on experiencing perimenopause: ‘I had abdominal fat retention, breakouts’
Actor and author Soha Ali Khan recently opened up about her experience with perimenopause, speaking candidly about the physical and emotional changes she faced before turning to bioidentical hormone therapy. Soha who has a podcast now called ‘All About Her’, had Maheep Kapoor and Dr Rashmi Roy in her latest episode. During the conversation, Soha spoke about symptoms that prompted her to seek medical guidance, revealing how unexpected changes in her body affected her daily life.“I remember I came to you because I was experiencing symptoms of perimenopause. And for me, for example, there was an abdominal weight gain suddenly because I’ve weighed the same my whole entire life and then suddenly I put on a couple of kilos and it was that sort of abdominal fat retention that I’m told happens when your hormones go out of whack. There was dryness, there was acne. I mean I’ve never since I was a teenager had acne and then suddenly had breakouts on my jaw. One of the advantages of aging is that you don’t get acne. So, I was like what is going on? Insomnia, trouble falling asleep and then you go to sleep and you wake up at 3:00 am and your heart is beating fast and there’s anxiety and there’s loss of energy and you just feel like everything just sucks and how are you supposed to cope with it all? And that’s when I came to you and you told me about bioidentical hormone therapy.”The episode explored the idea of “pro-ageing,” encouraging a shift in perspective from chasing youth to prioritising long-term health, wellness and self-confidence. Drawing from her expertise, Dr. Rashmi Roy explained the science behind bioidentical hormone therapy, while Maheep Kapoor offered her own insights into ageing and navigating public life as a woman.When asked if she feels pressure to stay young, Maheep replied in the affirmative before explaining, “Bollywood Wives happened to me when I was 48. It is a very insecure time for a woman. We are ageing, pre-menopause. And when Karan told me, I was like, ‘Couldn’t you have come a bit earlier?’ Then, on top of this, suddenly you are scrutinised, you get those trolls and have people pointing out your flaws.”Maheep revealed that adjusting to public attention wasn’t easy, especially when criticism about her appearance flooded social media. While harsh comments initially affected her, she eventually learned to deal with them differently.
