When Leslie Jones broke into a full-blown hot flash on a recent episode of “The View” to the point where it was all she and the hosts could focus on, women everywhere collectively nodded —including Gabrielle Union.
The 53-year-old actress, who’s currently navigating the change herself, knows exactly what it’s like to have your body do something sudden and wildly inconvenient, like turning into a human furnace out of nowhere.
For the actress, one of her more memorable incidents came recently while filming the upcoming romantic comedy “Blame It on Rome,” right in the middle of a steamy scene with her love interest, a younger “heartthrob.”
“My love interest is almost 20 years younger than me. He is very much a heartthrob throughout Europe,” she told theGrio. “And we were about to start a love scene, and I got a hot flash. And it read like I’m not very confident.”
The irony? “The Perfect Find” star has filmed more love scenes than most of us have experienced bad first dates.
“Obviously, I’ve done 1,001 love scenes. I’m not nervous,” she continued. “But my body made it look like I was panicking.”
The production team urged her to take her time, but the star, who knows a hot flash can intensify quickly, wanted to wrap it up before things got worse.
“I was like, ‘Can we wrap this up, buddy, please?’” she recalled. “It’s embarrassing. I’m working with a younger guy, and [it’s] like, ‘Oh great, here comes old Mother Hubbard… with her hot flashes.’”
Still, she pushed through, and even found humor on the other side of the moment.
“I got over my temporary embarrassment, and everyone on set just gave me grace,” she said, laughing.
But while the “Cheaper by the Dozen” actress can laugh it off now, she’s also clear that menopause, and especially its symptoms, can be deeply isolating, particularly when you don’t have the language for what’s happening in your body, or the confidence to talk about it out loud.
Menopause, which often begins in a woman’s early 50s, marks the natural end of a person’s menstrual cycle and is typically considered to have begun after 12 consecutive months without a period. However, in the years leading up to menopause—and often for many years after—women can experience a range of symptoms, from mood changes to disrupted sleep to night sweats and moderate to severe hot flashes.
For Union, the journey started earlier than she expected.
She said she began experiencing perimenopause, the transition before menopause, in her late 30s at a time when she didn’t know anyone else who was going through it, and when the topic wasn’t exactly dinner-table conversation.
“No one I knew was experiencing that at that age,” she said. “I just didn’t have the information. My mom wasn’t chatty Cathy about that sort of thing. So I just felt very alone… I felt on an island.”
The emotional toll became very real.
“I was embarrassed. There was deep shame,” she added. “I felt my value as a woman was being impacted, and I didn’t know who to talk to.”
One of the earliest signs for her was night sweats.
“You wake up and the sheets are… wet in the shape of your body, your whole body,” said the “Being Mary Jane” alum. “And I’m like… willing my husband (former NBA player Dwyane Wade) not to roll this way. You just want to hide the sheets as fast as possible. Like this isn’t happening. You just sort of want to make it go away.”
Union admitted she was in denial at first, spiraling instead of getting support.
“I was probably in a bit of denial,” she said, “but also a shame spiral.”
Eventually, she began talking to her doctors and learned not only what she was experiencing, but what her options were to manage the symptoms.
“So many women have moderate to severe hot flashes, and it’s just not fair that women have to suffer in silence because it’s going to happen to everyone,” said Dr. Diana Bitner, Chief Medical Officer of Women’s Health and Assistant Professor at Michigan State University College of Human Medicine, who joined Union on the call.
Bitner explained that hot flashes can occur when the part of the brain that regulates body temperature becomes disrupted.
“There’s an area in our brain that controls our body temperature that is getting thrown off,” she said. “That thermostat becomes essentially overactive.”
Though, as Bitner noted, there are options beyond hormonal treatments.
“Having options that are safe, that help us control our thermostat… matters,” she said. “LYNKUET is an FDA-approved non-hormonal therapy that women could use to help treat their moderate to severe hot flashes.”
Union, who has since started using LYNKUET as a non-hormonal treatment for her hot flashes, said one reason she’s speaking openly now is because hot flashes are often the most visible and yet the most misunderstood symptom.
They can cause sudden sweating that ruins makeup, lifts silk presses, and turns an outfit into a personal sauna. And in a culture and an industry where women are constantly expected to look polished and “together,” that visibility can quickly turn into embarrassment.
“We have a lot of misconceptions about why somebody might be randomly sweating, you know, perspiring a bit,” Union said. “Our bodies can send a message that we are not trying to convey.”
Today, the “Bring It On” star is far from the isolated woman she remembers being in her 30s. She’s a mother of five, a beauty entrepreneur, and an iconic actress with multiple projects in 2026, including the animated film landing next month, “GOAT,” starring Caleb McLaughlin, Jenifer Lewis, Stephen Curry, and more.
And she says it’s possible—this life, this pace, this confidence—because she has the right information, support, and symptom management. That’s also why she’s choosing to be outspoken.
She said, “No one should feel shame. No one should feel alone. No one should feel isolated or embarrassed, or feel like the world doesn’t have enough grace to extend to you.”
