*Halle Berry revealed in a recent discussion that her doctor misdiagnosed perimenopause as the “worst case of herpes” he’d ever seen.
Berry, 57, discussed menopause and women’s health at a summit called “A Day of Unreasonable Conversation” at the Getty Center with first lady Jill Biden. The actress recounted the instance when a doctor mistakenly identified her perimenopause symptoms as those of a sexually transmitted disease (STD).
Berry said she had sought out medical advice due to vaginal dryness and the pain she was experiencing after sex with her boyfriend, musician Van Hunt. A doctor told her she had an extreme case of herpes.
“I feel like I have razor blades in my vagina. I run to my gynecologist and I say, ‘Oh my God, what’s happening?’ It was terrible,” Berry recalled, according to The Hollywood Reporter. “He said, ‘You have the worst case of herpes I’ve ever seen.’ I’m like, ‘Herpes? I don’t have herpes!’”
She said she confronted Hunt after the diagnosis, and they both tested negative for the STD.
“I realized after the fact that is a symptom of perimenopause,” Berry said about the vaginal pain.
The Oscar winner learned she was in perimenopause after her doctor mistook her symptoms for herpes.
“First of all, my ego told me that I was going to skip [perimenopause],” Berry said. “I’m in great shape. I’m healthy. I managed to get myself off of insulin and manage my diabetes since I’m 20 years old. So that makes one think, oh, I can handle menopause. I’m going to skip that whole thing. I was so uneducated about it at that time.”
According to the Mayo Clinic, Perimenopause is “the time during which your body makes the natural transition to menopause, marking the end of the reproductive years.”
“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.’”
Berry encouraged the crowd at the summit to “help us change the way culture views women at this stage of our lives.”
READ MORE: Halle Berry Won’t Get Married Again Without a Prenup
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