Halle Berry has shared the story of learning she was going through perimenopause — and it all started with an incorrect STD diagnosis.
According to The Hollywood Reporter, the Academy Award-winning actress and first lady Jill Biden discussed menopause and women’s health — especially for older women — during social impact agency Propper Daley’s fourth A Day of Unreasonable Conversation event on Monday in Los Angeles.
As she addressed the summit’s attendees, Berry, who has emerged as a vocal supporter of menopause awareness, said that her goal is to change how “women and men feel about women during their midlife and how they feel about this — which used to be a dirty little word — menopause, perimenopause, and we in this room have to change that.”
“It can’t just be the doom and gloom story,” she added. “This is a glorious time of life.”
Berry surprised Biden when she shared the story of how she discovered she was going through perimenopause, joking that her ego convinced her she would skip that phase of her life since she was so healthy and safe.
However, she met the love of her life in partner Van Hunt, and three years ago — at the age of 54 — she found herself having a lot of sex.
Berry recalled experiencing excruciating pain following sex. She visited the doctor, who told her she had the worst case of herpes he had ever seen.
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After testing revealed that neither she nor Hunt had the virus, Berry realized that the pain was “a symptom of perimenopause” because of the dryness that occurs in that stage of life.
“My doctor had no knowledge and didn’t prepare me,” she said, noting “that’s when I knew, ‘Oh my gosh, I’ve got to use my platform; I have to use all of who I am, and I have to start making a change and a difference for other women.’”
The conversation concluded with Berry asking the audience’s Hollywood…
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