Salma Hayek says people wrongly think the menopause is ‘when a woman stops being sexy’

Actor revealed it was her decision to make one of her recent characters menopausal

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Salma Hayek has spoken out about the myths and misconceptions surrounding the menopause.

Speaking to The Sunday Times Style, the 54-year-old actor explained how it was her idea to make her character menopausal in the action film The Hitman’s Wife’s Bodyguard.

Hayek plays plays Sonia Kincaid in the film, who is married to an assassin (Samuel L Jackson), and goes travelling with a bodyguard (Ryan Reynolds).

“For me it was very important to put it in the plot, because it is such a real issue for everyone,” she told the publication.

“People have the wrong assumption that [the menopause] is when a woman stops being sexy.”

Hayek continued: “The concept of giving us an expiration date for everything based on your ability to create babies or not is really unfair.

“It should not define us as women. For so long the concept of beauty in a woman was leaning completely to youth, and I think, f**k that shit!”

The menopause is when a woman stops having periods and is no longer able to get pregnant naturally.

According to the NHS, it usually occurs between 45 and 55 years of age, as a woman’s oestrogen levels decline.

In the UK, the average age for a woman to reach the menopause is 51.

Elsewhere in the interview, Hayek opened up about why she waited until she was in her 40s to have children and get married.

“I had reached a place in my career [where] I’d done a lot of things, I was so excited to be a mother,” she said. “I didn’t feel like it would take anything away.”

Hayek has been married to François-Henri Pinault, CEO of luxury retail conglomerate Kering, since 2009.

They have one daughter together, Valentina Paloma Pinaut, who is 13 years old.