Naomi Watts drew on her menopause for her first book

“This will definitely end my career.” That was Naomi Watts’ first response to the prospect of writing her first book, “Dare I Say It: Everything I Wish I’d Known About Menopause.”

Through her menopause-focused wellness brand, Stripes beautyand openness about her experiences with perimenopause in her late 30s, while also trying to conceive her children with then-partner Liev Schreiber, Watts was already one of the foremost celebrities to address the aging process for women. “Dare I Say It,” to be released by Crown on Jan. 21, builds on her previous efforts. It fuses together experts from doctors, case studies from other women and Watts’ own experience.

“I hope it feels like an honest, cozy conversation with a girlfriend, and it will lead them to have that conversation in real time if they’re too scared to open up,” says Watts.

She’s candid about getting “baby botox” (a small dose of the injectable) between jobs to maintain her facial expressions on screen. The actress recently received Emmy and Golden Globe nominations for her performance as Babe Paley in Ryan Murphy’s “Feud: Capote vs. the Swans,” which she calls “a role of a lifetime. One of, if not my best roles.”

In her book, she shares an endearing anecdote about husband Billy Crudup, whom she married in 2023, allaying her fears of revealing her hormone patch during their first try by pointing out the gray hairs on his testicles. “To this day they are still the most romantic words I have ever heard,” writes Watts.

That levity was deliberate. “I always wanted to bring humor into it because we know the pain points,” she tells The Times.

After overcoming her fear of the unknown as it relates to being a debut author, Watts aimed to write the kind of book she wished she had as she struggled through symptoms alone. Watts’ mother also entered menopause early, at age 45, but they never talked about it until Watts plucked up the courage to bring it up with her.

“I think those are the conversations I didn’t have with you because my mom never had them with me,” Watts recalls her mother replying in “Dare I Say It.”

“I wish there was a book as I suffered through it, floundering and filled with shame and doubt and confusion,” says Watt.

Perhaps the strongest part of “Dare I Say It” is when the book addresses HRT, or hormone replacement therapy, which got a bad rap in 2002 when a study by the Women’s Health Initiative claimed that HRT caused breast cancer and cardiovascular disease, among other health problems. Watts writes that the study was actually commissioned to see if HRT reduced the risk of heart disease — it didn’t — and that it was stopped after researchers observed a slight increase in the risk of breast cancer. Subsequent research has suggested that the benefits of the drug outweigh the risks, esp for younger perimenopausal women. Advocates say HRT has been shown to help with bone density and prevent or lower the risk of Alzheimer’s disease. This is not to mention the symptoms of menopause and perimenopause, it is most commonly used to treat.

“Women have been taught not to complain. To soak it up, it’s a natural process you have to go through,” says Watts. “But you don’t have to suffer. The bad investigations that happened in 2002 just left us with so much fear.”

Watts emphasizes that she is not a doctor and that everyone should discuss the best options for them with their own doctor.

“But some doctors just say no without examining the person’s medical history, and that is not right. It is because they are not educated themselves,” she insists.

Dare I Say It and other resources can act as a stopgap for those who do not have adequate support to manage their symptoms.

“I tried to put together these doctors that I trusted, and it’s up to the reader to draw out whatever information they feel is right for them,” Watts says. “If you come in with some preparation, you can have a very nuanced conversation about what you’re experiencing, what your needs are, and whether it’s right for you.”

Watts continues: “As one of the doctors says, we’re still very much connected to the misogynistic, patriarchal message that women are at our expiration date when our eggs are gone. That’s still there, no matter how far we’ve moved as a society. It’s just ingrained.”

Watts declines to answer directly a question about Vice President-elect JD Vance’s apparent earlier endorsement of the view that the purpose of postmenopausal women is to care for their grandchildren, saying simply: “Let the fact that I’m not saying anything say it all .

“We don’t go into the corner and pull out our knitting needles,” she says, “even though I love to knit.

“We have a long way to go and it’s up to us to change that message,” Watts continues. “Experience and time on the clock really matter. Women at this point have more experience and we have something to offer the younger generations.”

Other than childcare.