"I have to start making a change and a difference for other women."
Halle Berry just got very real about her experience with perimenopause — and how her doctor misdiagnosed her symptoms as herpes. During the A Day of Unreasonable Conversation summit on Monday, hosted by Propper Daley at the Getty Center, Berry spoke about menopause and women’s health alongside first lady Jill Biden. Berry — who has previously been open about her health and aging — recalled thinking she would never have any perimenopause symptoms.
“First of all, my ego told me that I was going to skip it — I’m very safe, I’m healthy, I managed to get myself off of insulin and manage my diabetes since I’m 20 years old,” she said to Biden and the crowd, per The Hollywood Reporter (which was also a partner at the event). She went to add that she “finally [met] the man of my dreams” at 54, referring to boyfriend Van Hunt, cheekily saying that they were having a lot of sex.
Biden hilariously joked, “I didn’t know she was going to tell this story. I’m not talking about mine!”
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In all seriousness, Berry shared that she was experiencing a lot of pain during sex, so she went to her doctor, who told her she had the worst case of herpes he'd ever seen. Both she and Hunt were tested and came back negative for the infection before she "realized after the fact that is a symptom of perimenopause."
“My doctor had no knowledge and didn’t prepare me, 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.'” she said.
The panel was part of a bigger effort to de-stigmatize the conversation surrounding subjects such as menopause and "change the way culture views women at this stage of our lives."
“And we’re not exactly at the end," Berry added of her and Biden. "We’re sitting up here, two women who are clearly down the path of life, we are not done. We’re just getting started in our next act.”