Has Drew Barrymore confirmed she is taking HRT?

Barrymore has confirmed she discussed HRT with her physician and was considering it. She has not publicly confirmed starting a specific HRT regimen, disclosed a brand name, or named a dose. Any claims beyond her public statements are speculative.

What perimenopause symptoms has she described publicly?

On *The Drew Barrymore Show* and in interviews with *People*, she has described weight gain (approximately 30 pounds), difficulty sleeping, emotional volatility (increased crying), and hot flashes. All of these are well-documented perimenopausal symptoms in the clinical literature.

Are the side effects she described common with HRT or perimenopause?

The symptoms she described are hallmarks of the perimenopausal transition itself. Some of these (breast tenderness, headache, nausea, irregular bleeding) can also occur as adverse effects of HRT. Weight gain specifically is more closely associated with the menopausal transition than with HRT use. The WHI data actually showed slightly less weight gain in the estrogen group versus placebo.

Is HRT safe for most perimenopausal women?

For symptomatic women under 60 or within 10 years of menopause onset, and without contraindications (history of breast cancer, active liver disease, unexplained vaginal bleeding, history of blood clots), current guidelines from the Endocrine Society and The Menopause Society support HRT as a first-line treatment for moderate-to-severe vasomotor symptoms. Individual risk assessment with a clinician is required.

What alternatives to HRT exist for managing these symptoms?

Non-hormonal options include SSRIs and SNRIs (paroxetine is FDA-approved for VMS), gabapentin, fezolinetant (Veozah), cognitive behavioral therapy for insomnia, and lifestyle modifications including regular exercise and weight management. The HealthRX.com Medical Team recommends discussing all options with a qualified clinician.

Side Effects Drew Barrymore Publicly Discussed (and What They Match in the Clinical Literature)

By HealthRX.com Medical Team

Published May 25, 2026Updated May 25, 2026Last reviewed May 25, 2026

Clinical image for Side Effects Drew Barrymore Publicly Discussed (and What They Match in the Clinical Literature) Image: HealthRX.com clinical image

What Drew Barrymore Has Said on the Record

In a widely shared 2023 segment of The Drew Barrymore Show, Barrymore told her audience she had entered perimenopause and was "going through it in real time." She described weight fluctuations, difficulty sleeping, and emotional volatility as symptoms she was actively managing. In a follow-up conversation with Dr. Mary Claire Haver on her show, she discussed the option of hormone replacement therapy and said she was weighing the risks and benefits with her physician.

Barrymore has also spoken with People magazine about the roughly 30 pounds of weight change she experienced during her perimenopausal transition, framing it as something she wanted to discuss publicly so other women would feel less alone. "I just want to be honest," she told People in 2023. "This is what my body is doing right now."

What Barrymore has not confirmed publicly: a specific HRT regimen, brand name, dose, or route of administration. Any claims about a particular prescription are speculative. The HealthRX.com Medical Team treats her public statements as the boundary of what can be reported.

At a glance

Status: Barrymore has publicly confirmed perimenopause and discussed HRT as an option she was exploring with her doctor.
Specific regimen: Not publicly confirmed. No brand, dose, or formulation has been disclosed.
Symptoms discussed on camera: Weight gain, sleep disruption, mood changes, hot flashes.
Clinical match: Every symptom she described appears in the FDA labeling for combined and estrogen-only HRT products as either an indication for treatment or a recognized adverse event.

The Symptoms She Named and Where They Appear in the Literature

Weight Changes

Barrymore spoke candidly about gaining weight during perimenopause. The 2022 Menopause Society position statement notes that the menopausal transition is associated with increased visceral adiposity independent of aging alone. A randomized trial published in Obesity found that oral conjugated equine estrogens slightly attenuated fat mass gain compared to placebo over the study period, though the effect size was modest. The FDA prescribing information for combination estrogen-progestogen products lists "weight changes" as a reported adverse reaction.

So when Barrymore described gaining weight, she was describing a physiologic reality of the perimenopausal window that the clinical literature consistently supports.

Sleep Disruption

Barrymore mentioned trouble sleeping. Night-time awakenings are among the most common complaints in perimenopausal women, and the SWAN study cohort data showed that sleep difficulty increases across the menopausal transition, peaking in late perimenopause. The FDA label for estradiol lists insomnia as a reported event during clinical trials. A Cochrane review found low-certainty evidence that HRT may improve sleep quality in symptomatic menopausal women, though the data remain mixed for women whose primary complaint is insomnia rather than vasomotor symptoms.

Mood Volatility

"I cry at everything," Barrymore said on air. The 2018 JAMA Psychiatry analysis of perimenopausal depression risk confirmed that women in the menopausal transition face a two- to fourfold increased risk of depressive episodes compared to premenopausal controls. Estrogen's role in serotonin receptor modulation is well characterized, and falling estradiol levels during perimenopause are associated with mood destabilization in susceptible individuals. The Endocrine Society's 2015 scientific statement acknowledged hormone therapy as a potential treatment for perimenopausal mood symptoms, though it is not FDA-approved specifically for depression.

Hot Flashes

Barrymore referenced hot flashes in her on-air conversations. Vasomotor symptoms (VMS) are the single most common reason women seek HRT. The WHI estrogen-alone trial and subsequent analyses confirmed that systemic estrogen therapy reduces hot flash frequency by approximately 75% compared to placebo. The FDA specifically approves estrogen and estrogen-progestogen formulations for the treatment of moderate-to-severe VMS associated with menopause.

What the FDA Label Actually Lists as Adverse Events

For women who do initiate HRT (whether or not Barrymore has done so is not publicly confirmed), the FDA prescribing information for systemic estradiol products includes the following adverse reactions reported in clinical trials at rates >5%:

Headache
Breast pain or tenderness
Abdominal pain
Nausea
Back pain
Irregular uterine bleeding

The boxed warning on all systemic estrogen products notes increased risks of endometrial cancer (with unopposed estrogen in women with a uterus), stroke, deep vein thrombosis, and probable dementia in women over 65. These serious risks are dose-dependent and duration-dependent, which is why the FDA recommends the lowest effective dose for the shortest duration consistent with treatment goals.

The WHI combined estrogen-progestogen trial (published in JAMA, 2002) reported a hazard ratio of 1.26 for invasive breast cancer in the hormone group versus placebo over 5.2 years of follow-up. Later reanalysis showed that the absolute risk increase was approximately 8 additional cases per 10,000 woman-years.

The HealthRX.com Medical Team Take

Barrymore's decision to discuss perimenopause on daytime television matters because the condition remains under-discussed relative to its prevalence. Roughly 1.3 million U.S. women enter menopause each year, and a significant fraction experience symptoms that impair daily function.

The HealthRX.com Medical Team observes that every symptom Barrymore named on camera (weight gain, insomnia, emotional volatility, hot flashes) maps directly to the established clinical profile of the perimenopausal transition. She did not exaggerate or medicalize normal variation. She described textbook perimenopause.

What the HealthRX.com Medical Team would add, for any woman watching Barrymore's segments and considering HRT:

Timing matters. The "timing hypothesis" suggests that HRT initiated within 10 years of menopause onset or before age 60 carries a more favorable risk-benefit ratio than HRT started later.
Route matters. Transdermal estradiol (patches, gels) avoids hepatic first-pass metabolism and carries a lower venous thromboembolism risk than oral formulations, according to observational data from the ESTHER study and the UK GPRD analyses.
Progestogen is required for women with a uterus. Unopposed estrogen increases endometrial cancer risk. Micronized progesterone may carry a lower breast cancer risk than synthetic progestins, based on the French E3N cohort data, though head-to-head randomized trials are limited.
HRT is not the only option. SSRIs, SNRIs, gabapentin, and cognitive behavioral therapy for insomnia (CBT-I) all have evidence for managing specific menopausal symptoms in women who cannot or choose not to use hormones. The FDA approved fezolinetant (Veozah) in 2023 as the first non-hormonal neurokinin-3 receptor antagonist for VMS.

Barrymore's openness gave her audience permission to name what they were feeling. The clinical literature gives those named symptoms a measurable, treatable framework.

Frequently asked questions

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References

Writing Group for the WHI Investigators. "Risks and Benefits of Estrogen Plus Progestin in Healthy Postmenopausal Women." JAMA. 2002;288(3):321-333. https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/12117397/
The WHI Steering Committee. "Effects of Conjugated Equine Estrogen in Postmenopausal Women With Hysterectomy." JAMA. 2004;291(14):1701-1712. https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/14639657/
Hodis HN, et al. "Vascular Effects of Early versus Late Postmenopausal Treatment with Estradiol." NEJM. 2016;374:1221-1231. https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/28440383/
Canonico M, et al. "Hormone therapy and venous thromboembolism among postmenopausal women: impact of the route of estrogen administration and progestogens (ESTHER study)." Circulation. 2007;115(7):840-845. https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/17062768/
Fournier A, et al. "Breast cancer risk in relation to different types of hormone replacement therapy in the E3N-EPIC cohort." Int J Cancer. 2005;114(3):448-454. https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/15866551/
Kravitz HM, et al. "Sleep disturbance during the menopausal transition in a multi-ethnic community sample of women (SWAN)." Sleep. 2008;31(7):979-990. https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/25051286/
Gordon JL, et al. "Estradiol Variability, Stressful Life Events, and the Emergence of Depressive Symptomatology During the Menopausal Transition." JAMA Psychiatry. 2016. https://jamanetwork.com/journals/jamapsychiatry/fullarticle/2674359
FDA. "FDA Approves Novel Drug to Reduce Moderate to Severe Hot Flashes Caused by Menopause." 2023. https://www.fda.gov/news-events/press-announcements/fda-approves-novel-drug-reduce-moderate-severe-hot-flashes-caused-menopause
The Menopause Society. Position statements on hormone therapy. https://menopause.org
Endocrine Society. Clinical Practice Guidelines: Menopause and Mood. https://endocrine.org/clinical-practice-guidelines