Drew Barrymore is talking plainly about the body changes that have come with menopause, and she is not softening the edges. On The Drew Barrymore Show, the 51-year-old described feeling so bloated that she said, “I am so bloated, I feel like a carp that washed up on the beach.” She added, “I’m just that dead fish.”
The comments landed with the kind of bluntness that makes a private struggle sound suddenly familiar. Barrymore has said before that the problem can be extreme. In 2023, she told Gabrielle Union on Today that she can look anywhere from six to eight months pregnant, and that it happens often enough to notice.
That candor matters because menopause bloating is not rare. Alyssa Dweck, chief medical officer of Bonafide Health, said it affects about 38 percent of postmenopausal women, compared with 14 percent of premenopausal women. She said two of the simplest ways to help speed digestion back up are dietary fiber and water intake.
The physical reasons are tied to shifting hormones, not vanity. Conny Wade said slower digestion and increased gut sensitivity can happen as estrogen and progesterone levels change during menopause, while stress and worse sleep can add to the problem. She said one strategy that may help is chewing food to an applesauce consistency, which can support a more relaxed rest-and-digest state. A study in the European Journal of Nutrition found that chewing more, about 40 seconds per bite, significantly improves digestive breakdown.
There is also a plainspoken reason Barrymore’s comments resonate: they turn a symptom many women try to hide into something easier to say out loud. Wade said some women notice a difference within a few days and sometimes after one meal, and women who try the chewing strategy may feel less pressure after meals, less gassy and more comfortable overall. Barrymore’s language may be colorful, but the point is direct. She is describing menopause as it shows up in real life, and the answer to whether the bloating is part of that journey is yes — it is.
