- In the RHOBH season 14 premiere, Dorit Kemsley, 48, opens up about her separation from husband PK Kemsley and a fractured friendship with Kyle Richards.
- At the same time, she was dealing with perimenopause symptoms, including night sweats, anxiety, and more.
- Here’s how Dorit treated them, thus beginning a “journey of healing.”
For two years, Real Housewives of Beverly Hills star Dorit Kemsley, 48, “wasn’t feeling like myself.”
She had terrible anxiety and night sweats. There was bloating and incontinence. Her period stopped completely. Dorit attributed it to post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) from her 2021 home invasion and a troubling time with husband PK, from whom she is now separated. In reality, it was perimenopause.
“I didn’t know what was happening,” Dorit exclusively tells Women’s Health ahead of the RHOBH season 14 premiere. “A lot of the symptoms, I had assumed they were just directly related to PTSD. I had a lot of things going on in my personal life and my marriage. So I really didn’t know: Is it my hormones? Is it PTSD? Is it life?”
Soon enough, a friend recommended an ob-gyn that specializes in menopause, who confirmed that Dorit was, indeed, in perimenopause. (Perimenopause “refers to the time during which your body makes the natural transition to menopause,” according to the Mayo Clinic.)
The diagnosis came as a shock to Dorit.
“I had never even heard the word perimenopause until I went to her office,” she says. “I think that I’m pretty well-read, and if I don’t know a lot of these things, most women don’t. In that moment, I thought that in the future, I’d love to really do something to get the word out to women.”
To address her symptoms, Dorit tried hormone replacement therapy pellets, but said her treatment was on “the conservative side.” Mostly, she relied on supplements from The Better Menopause, a U.K.-based supplement brand where Dorit serves as partner and vice president of their U.S. advisory board.
Dorit began a regimen that included a probiotic for her gut health (which ultimately eased some of her anxiety, too) and a supplement that helped her sleep through the night. She’s also been experimenting with Better Menopause’s new supplement to support a healthy libido, which will debut next year. The trio has “completely changed my life,” Dorit says.
Thanks to the interventions, she began to feel more “empowered” going into season 14.
“I was feeling more myself—more clear and having less brain fog. When you start to feel better physically and emotionally, then you start to just feel you can conquer anything. So I went into the season feeling a lot stronger than I did in the past few years,” Dorit says, noting that this year, she dealt with blowback about her separation and friendships with some of the ladies, in particular former BFF Kyle Richards.
“I didn’t want to go into the season hiding from any of those feelings. I had reached a point in my life where I wasn’t going to accept a lot of the things I’d accepted in the past,” she adds. “I am feeling positive, hopeful and empowered in this stage of my life. My journey of healing has well and truly begun. It feels like my time.”
Overall, Dorit credits treatment of her perimenopausal symptoms with her “strong voice” this season—and hopes other women out there dealing with the transition can find their own power.
“Women need to have the information,” she says. “They need to know when they’re in it and what to expect. They need to know that they’re not alone and there are things out there to help.”
Charlotte Walsh (she/her) is an associate news editor with Women’s Health, where she covers the intersection of wellness and entertainment. Previously, she worked as a writer at The Messenger, E! News, and Netflix. In her free time, she enjoys reality television, tennis and films starring Nicole Kidman.
