Katherine Heigl, 46, Had 'Giggle Dribble' During Perimenopause: 'I Laughed Through It' (Exclusive)

Katherine Heigl isn’t ashamed to admit that she’s fallen victim to a little “giggle dribble” since having a child.

The 46-year-old actress — who PEOPLE exclusively reveals is the latest brand ambassador for Poise — stars in a funny and relatable campaign that addresses "giggle dribble," or the accidental release of urine, which can affect women after childbirth and during perimenopause. Perimenopause refers to the time when the body starts to make its natural transition to menopause, which marks the end of a woman's reproductive years.

In the clip, Heigl is at brunch with a friend and her 10-year-old son when a burst of laughter leads to “giggle dribble.” She quickly turns the relatable moment into an educational one, explaining that hormonal changes in childbirth and perimenopause can weaken the pelvic floor.

When asked how she knows so much on the topic, Heigl — who won an Emmy award in 2007 for her role as Dr. Izzie Stevens on Grey's Anatomy — cheekily responds that she “used to be a doctor” before offering her friend a Poise liner. 

Related: Katherine Heigl Addresses Grey's Anatomy Emmys Controversy 16 Years Later: 'I Wasn't Trying to Be a D---'

Heigl tells PEOPLE that she finds it funny because she never realized there was a stigma associated with the occasional bladder leak, especially if it’s the result of laughter or a coughing fit.

“When I talk with my friends, we all laugh about it,” she admits. “So I was like, ‘Oh no, that won’t do.’ I am not okay with anybody out there feeling any kind of shame or embarrassment around this because it is such a natural progression of female existence and I want us to not take it too seriously and to be able to laugh about it. And it's such a blessing to have a product that can support you through that.”

“I will happily get loud about this if it will help other women feel comfortable,” she adds.

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Heigl, a mom of three, recalls her first mishap a year after welcoming her son Joshua in 2017.

“I was kind of just like, ‘Oh, excuse me, I'm going to need to go change my underwear,’” she quips. “I kind of just laughed through it versus felt shame. But then you start going through perimenopause and it's just all falling apart. So you just have to embrace it.”

Heigl says that even her sister has been poking fun at her perimenopause journey.

“She was giving me crap the other day like, ‘Oh God, how long is this perimenopause thing going to be with you?’ I was like, ‘You know what? It could be 10 years, so you're just going to suck it up,’” she says with a laugh.

Related: Halle Berry Recalls Her Doctor Saying She Had the 'Worst Case of Herpes' He'd Ever Seen — but It Was Perimenopause

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Despite her lighthearted approach, the Firefly Lane star explains that it frustrates her that doctors offer little to no advice or answers about navigating perimenopause.

“You're kind of alone in it. You’re like, ‘What's going on with me? What's going on with my body?’ And the response is to it like, ‘Oh, this is just what it is to get older.’ Your body is suddenly completely a stranger to you and you don't know what it's doing or why.”

“The ups and downs in mood, the fatigue, the brain fog, all these things that you're like, ‘This isn't me.’ And I don't know what to do about it,” she continues. “I just want to have my energy back and my clarity, and you're trying to kind of hide it because you don't want everyone to see you as this overly exhausted moody bitch.”

However, Heigl tells PEOPLE that she feels a sense of relief being able to connect with and relate to other women on this journey.

“Just having someone else who's going through it or having similar experiences so that you feel like, okay, it’s not just me,” she says. “It's kind of universal, which is why I feel strongly that there should be more proactive help for all of us women going through this.”

Read the original article on People