Halle Berry Reveals Herpes Scare Was Actually Perimenopause
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During the fourth annual “Day of Unreasonable Conversation” summit, Halle Berry opened up about women’s health while in conversation with First Lady Jill Biden — just one week after President Biden signed an executive order centered around boosting women’s health research.
Berry, who only recently became a menopause awareness advocate, discussed how she realized she was in perimenopause because of the copious amounts of sex she was having after she “finally [met] the man of my dreams” in her partner, Van Hunt.
According to The Hollywood Reporter, she began by noting that her goal was to change “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.”
The Oscar winner transitioned into the story expressing, “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.”
After experiencing extreme pain after sex, her doctor told her that she had “the worst case of herpes he’d ever seen.” Both she and Hunt tested negative to having herpes.
“I realized after the fact that [dryness] is a symptom of perimenopause,” Berry explained, adding, “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 and First Lady Biden pleaded to the crowd to “help us change the way culture views women at this stage of our lives.” The Catwoman actress 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.”
The event, hosted by Phoebe Robinson, also featured panels discussions from Kerry Washington and newly-minted Oscar winner Cord Jefferson.
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