Drew Barrymore had a ‘hot flush’ on live TV. Let's not make it the last one we see.

Drew Barrymore experienced her first hot flush live on air this week, while interviewing Jennifer Aniston and Adam Sandler for The Drew Barrymore Show.

"I'm so hot," 48-year-old Drew said while removing her blazer and fanning her face.

"I think I'm having my first perimenopause hot flashes. For the first time, I think I’m having my first hot flash. Whoa!”

Jennifer Aniston, sitting opposite Drew, added she was "so honoured" while helping her friend to reposition her microphone and also feeling her skin to confirm the radiating heat.

Drew made a joke about being glad the significant moment was "documented" and then it was on with the interview. Business as usual. 

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And like the many thousands of celebrity women and fans commenting under her Instagram post of the viral moment, I loved it.

As a woman in my early forties, I am yet to experience perimenopause but I know it is coming for me soon. Considering it is a natural part of life experienced by approximately 50 per cent of the population, it is refreshing to see celebrities like Drew dealing with the very awkward symptom of a hot flash or flush openly, and with such a glorious sense of normality. 

It's hard to imagine a moment like this happening a decade or even maybe five ago, which shows just how far we have come when A-list celebrities are making perimenopausal hot flushes 'no big deal' on television. 

Drew discussed other aspects of her experience with perimenopause in an interview with Gayle King for her Facing Fertility series last week.

“I realised that I was in perimenopause when I started having my period every two weeks,” Drew shared with Gayle.

“One doctor also just told me this could last, in the worst-case scenario, 10 years. And I was like, I will never make it 10 years like this!”

Like Naomi Watts, Gillian Anderson, Alison Daddo and Mamamia's founder Mia Freedman, Drew joins a club of other high-profile women who have talked openly about their experiences with perimenopause.

And I am so grateful for their words and actions.

Naomi Watts, 54, has recently launched her own beauty brand called Stripes, which is designed specifically for women in midlife, dealing with perimenopause and menopause.

"When I was shooting the TV show Gypsy, I was really having a lot of symptoms at that point in time and, luckily, I told my makeup artist that I was having problems sleeping,” the actress told In Style Magazine last year. 

"She’s around the same age, and I just needed one person to understand what I was going through. She identified with what I was experiencing and totally wrapped her arms around me. That meant the world to me that she understood having to work up to 16-hour days while dealing with symptoms."

Listen: Mia talks about her experience with perimenopause for No Filter. Post continues below.

Naomi started experiencing perimenopausal symptoms at just 36 years of age. After both her children were born in 2007 and 2008, her symptoms intensified. 

"After the second child, I went through massive night sweats, hot flashes and I thought 'this is terrible,' and I would try to test out the community of my friends and I was sort of met with nervous laughs and shrugging it off, and I thought 'Oh wow no one else is there, I better keep silent,' and that's how it was," she said at the New Pause Symposium in New York City in October.

Since then, like Drew and her other celebrity peers entering their late 40s and early 50s, Naomi has spoken very openly about her experience to ensure other women don't feel so isolated.

"I just knew that this is a road that no one else should have to walk through alone again without a community, because without proper care taken, you are going to turn in on yourself," Naomi said.

"I'm now beyond the average age [to have perimenopause and menopause] and I can actually say it out loud and I can say, having gone through the worst part of it, I'm on the other side of it now."

The more women like Drew and Naomi normalise perimenopause on the global stage, the better. It doesn't replace expert advice, but it makes us feel seen and understood.

I am slowly beginning to let go of some of my fears around perimenopause and this next stage of my life and it is thanks to Drew and the other women who have gone before me who are unafraid to share. 

Because if Drew can get through a hot flash while interviewing Jenifer Aniston on a live TV, I reckon I can get through one too. 

Laura Jackel is Mamamia's Family Writer. For links to her articles and to see photos of her outfits and kids, follow her on Instagram and TikTok.

Feature image: Getty.