Halle Berry Says Her Doctor Wouldn't Say This 1 Word. Now She’s Helping Congress End The Stigma.
Actor Halle Berry shed light on the stigma surrounding menopause in a passionate speech Thursday on Capitol Hill as she helped lawmakers introduce a bill to improve women’s health care.
Berry joined senators at an event to promote the Advancing Menopause Care and Mid-Life Women’s Health Act, which would direct more federal funding toward research, education and clinical trials on menopause and on hormone replacement therapy to treat hot flashes and other associated symptoms.
In her speech Thursday, Berry, 57, shared a recent experience she had with a doctor who skirted around naming the cause of her health concerns because of the stigma attached to the word.
“We went back and forth… I finally realized he wasn’t going to say it. So I thought, ‘OK, I have to do what no man can do. I have to say it.’”
“I said, ’I’m in menopause!” she shouted.
The doctor proceeded to tell her that she didn’t look as if she was in menopause and that he could never say that to her or any of his female clients, she said, pointing to the stigma of naming the stage of life.
“It has to be destigmatized. The shame has to be taken out of menopause. We have to talk about this very normal part of our life that happens,” she said. “Our doctors can’t even say the word to us, let alone walk us through the journey of what our menopausal years look like.”
Berry has previously shared her experience with perimenopause, the stage before menopause. In March, Berry told first lady Jill Biden at the Day of Unreasonable Conversation summit in Los Angeles that a doctor had misdiagnosed her and didn’t prepare her for the changes that begin with perimenopause.
“That’s when I knew, ‘Oh, my gosh, I’ve got to use my platform,” Berry said in March. “I have to use all of who I am, and I have to start making a change and a difference for other women.’”
Despite more than 1 million people in the U.S. being in menopause each year, there is minimal research on the biological process. Menopause usually begins in women around the ages 45 to 55, and the hormonal changes can cause symptoms such as hot flashes, night sweats, mood swings and incontinence.
“For too long, menopause has been overlooked, underinvested in and left behind,” Sen. Patty Murray (D-Wash.) said at the event Thursday. “It’s well past time to stop treating menopause like a secret and start treating it like the major, mainstream public health issue it is.
