By Mary Ann Bourbeau
RED BANK – Samantha Bee is no shrinking violet when it comes to taboo subjects. So, when the comedian and former correspondent for Comedy Central’s “The Daily Show” started experiencing some harsh symptoms of menopause, she decided to open up the conversation, albeit with her signature humor.
Bee brings her one-woman show, “How to Survive Menopause,” to The Vogel at the Count Basie Center for the Arts Friday, Sept. 12. It will be an intimate evening in which she imparts what she has learned from other women while also sharing her own personal experiences. It’s a show, she said, for anyone who is going through it, has gone through it or knows someone going through it – basically the entire population.
“It started for me around age 46 or 47, coincidentally around the same time I started my TV show,” said Bee, who hosted the news satire show, “Full Frontal with Samantha Bee,” on TBS from 2016 to 2022. “It just pummeled me; it was so shocking. I didn’t know what was happening. I didn’t know why, but I just wanted to break things.
For the first year or two, Bee chalked it up to the stress of her new job.
“My hair was falling out in big clumps,” she said. “I would sweat through the night. I had trouble managing my moods. I’m Canadian, so I’m usually so mellow, but my anger was like a volcano erupting. I was emotionally insane. My kids were little, and my family was worried about me. It was really a shaky couple of years.”
Then she developed frozen shoulder, a condition that causes pain, stiffness and limited range of motion in the shoulder joint. Bee sought treatment from a doctor and, upon hearing the word “perimenopause,” she finally began to understand what her body was going through.
“It was a relief to hear the word,” she said. “But it still took me years to get comfortable talking about it. It would have been great if someone in my life had said the word ‘perimenopause.’ ”
Bee found a great deal of relief in hormone replacement therapy.
“My symptoms are much better,” she said. “It’s easier with the knowledge and grace I have given myself. I sleep now, and my normal life has resumed. It’s like a new version of myself.”
She also decided to bring the subject of menopause out of the closet because there isn’t enough information out there for women.
“I used to think that some of the symptoms were probably my fault,” she said. “I felt like a failure. You have to forgive yourself and find a way to talk about it. It’s critical to have someone to talk to. We’ve normalized the idea of erectile dysfunction. It should be the same for menopause.”
In 2023, Bee embarked on a national tour with her live show, “Your Favorite Woman: The Joy of Sex Education,” taking women on a journey through their bodies from puberty through menopause.
“I really don’t think we receive proper sex ed training,” she said. “Whenever I got to the section about menopause, I could feel the audience leaning forward in their seats and really engaging. It was my favorite part of the show. It was hard for me to talk about it, and I’m very used to saying hard things out loud. But it was a catharsis. I always heard something new, and it was really helpful.”
While the hormone replacement therapy has been very helpful, Bee said she still struggles with frozen shoulder.
“I haven’t put on a bra with ease and comfort in eight years,” she said. “Aging is really hard, but it’s so much better when we talk about it, and especially when we see the humor in it.”
The article originally appeared in the September 4 – September 10, 2025 print edition of The Two River Times.
