Hollywood star Halle Berry, 57, shared a story from her life that is as harrowing as it is powerful in demystifying women’s health issues.

The eternally radiant actress revealed how a doctor once told her she had the “worst case of herpes [they had] ever seen,” only to later discover that the gynecologist had erroneously identified her symptoms. She eventually learned that she was experiencing perimenopause, a sneaky precursor to menopause.

“First of all, my ego told me that I was going to skip [perimenopause],” Halle said during a conversation with First Lady Jill Biden at Monday’s A Day of Unreasonable Conversation summit at the Getty Center in Los Angeles.

Halle Berry initially thought she would skip perimenopause but found out she had symptoms in the most unexpected way possible

Image credits: Kamil Krzaczynski/Getty Image

“I’m in great shape. I’m healthy. I managed to get myself off of insulin and manage my diabetes since [I was] 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,” she continued.

Halle shared a bit of her sex life during the conversation and revealed how she experienced extreme pain after being intimate with musician Van Hunt, the “man of [her] dreams,” whom she met when she was 54 years old.

“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,” she recalled. “He said, ‘You have the worst case of herpes I’ve ever seen.’ I’m like, ‘Herpes? I don’t have herpes!’”

The actress shared the story of being mistakenly told she had herpes during a conversation with First Lady Jill Biden

 

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The Hollywood star said she confronted Van about it, after which they both got tests done for the sexually transmitted disease (STD) and received negative results.

“I realize after the fact, that is a symptom of perimenopause,” Halle said.

She noted that dryness is a symptom of perimenopause, the often unpredictable lead-up to menopause.

Halle Berry said she shared the story so that men and women change their perceptions of menopause and perimenopause

Image credits: halleberry

“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 added.

Halle said she shared the story so that men and women change how they feel about medical conditions like menopause and perimenopause.

“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,” she told the audience.

Netizens thanked the actress for sharing the story and trying to change the narrative surrounding women’s health issues

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