During a conversation with first lady Jill Biden, Berry shared that a doctor told her she had the most severe case of herpes he’d ever seen when she was actually in her perimenopause phase.
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.
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 industry creators and executives to “help us change the way culture views women at this stage of our lives.”
Monday’s invitation-only event aimed to disseminate knowledge that would impact future on-screen storylines and preserve narrative authenticity, THR reported.
In addition to Berry and Biden, speakers and panelists in the day’s programming also included film icon Jane Fonda, “Insecure” showrunner Prentice Penny, recent Oscar winner Cord Jefferson and prominent actress Kerry Washington, who addressed the current climate of polarization and the challenges of engaging with people who hold opposing opinions. Her production company, Simpson Street, co-chaired the event.
“We all need to be talking to one another outside of our comfort zones, more than ever really, because we’re facing tremendous obstacles,” Washington said in her speech, “whether it’s the climate crisis, the need for affordable care, wars in Israel, Gaza and Ukraine, an epidemic of loneliness, shattered ideas of what reality and truth are; it’s a lot.”
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