President Bush’s stern warning to his daughters when wife went through menopause — as Jenna reveals her own early symptoms

It was a festive Christmas Eve dinner at the Bush family home when the evening took an unexpected turn.

A teenage Jenna Bush Hager and her twin sister, Barbara, had mouthed off to their mother — bringing the famously composed former first lady Laura Bush to tears. 

“My dad was like, ‘You a—holes!’” Jenna recalled at a Midi Health event on Wednesday. “We couldn’t believe it. We looked at him, and he said, ‘Your mom’s going through menopause; go and apologize.’”

The revelation from the “Today” co-host’s father, former President George W. Bush, marked the first time she had heard people openly talk about the so-called “change of life” — which, at just 43 years old, she has now started to experience herself.

“In the last year, the conversations that I’ve been having with my friends … are very different from the conversations I know that my mom had,” Jenna said.

Since starting to experience the very beginnings of perimenopause herself, the former first daughter said she’s begun having symptoms such as mood swings, insomnia and fatigue.

“My shoulder has been bothering me,” Jenna said, explaining that she thought she’d just pulled a muscle during a workout. “I went to physical therapy and … she’s like, ‘No, you have a frozen shoulder.’”

Also called adhesive capsulitis, the condition is common in women during menopause, usually between the ages of 40 and 60. The sharp decline estrogen levels can lead to inflammation and scar tissue in the shoulder, which causes pain, stiffness and restricted movement.

“There’s no way I can really fix it,” Jenna admitted.

She’s going public with her experience as part of her partnership with Midi Health, aiming to destigmatize conversations about menopause and perimenopause — and to educate women on how hormone therapy can help manage their symptoms.

Hormone replacement therapy, or HRT, has been a controversial topic for years. Many women are wary of it, and some doctors are hesitate to prescribe it, over concerns about cancer.

But a growing body of research is driving home the benefits of taking estrogen and progesterone. And those cancer fears? Possibly overblown.

Research presented at The Menopause Society’s 2025 Annual Meeting found that women who started HRT during perimenopause had 60% lower rates of breast cancer, along with fewer heart attacks and strokes.

Testosterone can also play a significant role, offering relief for many symptoms that women have long been expected to tolerate.

“I do think that there is a misconception that testosterone is a male hormone. We make testosterone!” said Dr. Kathleen Jordan, Midi’s Chief Medical Officer.

“In fact, we make more testosterone than estrogen… so when we talk about hormone replacement therapy, we talk about estrogen and progesterone — and testosterone comes into play, because it’s kind of slowly declining along the way.

“The most studied indication for testosterone is libido,” she added. “That’s the most studied, the most accepted and definitely the most agreed upon in the industry. 

“There are emerging studies about how it can also help with muscle mass, bone health and even cognitive abilities as well. So people are taking it for a variety of reasons. Some people take it, they just feel more energized.”

Though some women worry about side effects like growing more body hair, Jordan said this is rare and generally only occurs at very high doses.

“What is really exciting about the way that we do testosterone is you have a control,” said Midi Health CEO Joanna Strober.

Their version comes in a cream with adjustable dosage, with patients starting on modest amounts meant to bring their testosterone levels back up to those typical in their 20s.

“[These are] the conversations the women before us weren’t really allowed to have,” said Jenna. 

Speaking more openly, she added, allows women to feel like they’re not alone — whatever they’re dealing with.

“Oh, good, it’s not just me that — you know, once a month,” she said. “Henry’s like, ‘Are you gonna do your Midi Health thing? Because you really should get some help.’ 

“Anybody that’s been with you for 20 years can know a shift in you. And I appreciate that. We want our partners to support us in our health and know that it isn’t like I want to be killing you with a knife,” she added with a laugh.