Halle Berry discussed a topic that doesn’t get enough attention at the recent A Day of Unreasonable Conversation event, and that’s perimenopause. During the invite-only gathering that took place at the Getty Center in Los Angeles, Berry had a talk with First Lady Jill Biden about women’s health, with a specific focus on menopause.
The Bruised actress and director set the stage by explaining that her aim was “changing the way 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. This is a glorious time of life.”
This is a timely conversation considering President Biden recently signed an executive order focused on boosting women’s health research.
During the chat, Berry, 57, shared her personal experience with perimenopause—the period when your body is transitioning to menopause. It is often characterized by reduced fertility as well as hormonal fluctuations.
“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,” the Oscar-winner said. Berry continued, stating that she “finally [met] the man of my dreams” referring to her current beau Van Hunt, being quite transparent about their sex life and how often they were doing “it.” The First Lady jokingly interjected and said, “I didn’t know she was going to tell this story. I’m not talking about mine!”
But Berry shared her experience of having extreme pain during and after sex and going to see a medical professional because of it. To her surprise, the doctor told the actress she appeared to have the worst case of herpes he’d ever seen. However, after Berry and Van Hunt got tested, neither had the sexually transmitted disease.
“I realized after the fact that is a symptom of perimenopause,” Berry said, referring to the vaginal dryness that was identified. She continued, “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.’”
The conversation concluded with Berry asking creators and those in the crowd to “help us change the way culture views women at this stage of our lives.”
She added, “And we’re not exactly at the end. 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.”