Halle Berry has shared how she learned she was in perimenopause
Speaking about her experience with First Lady, Dr Jill Biden, at the A Day of Unreasonable Conversation summit, the Cat Woman actress revealed that it all started when she began feeling pain when having sex with her partner Van Hunt.
So she decided, to be on the safe side, to make an appointment with her doctor to get to the bottom of what was happening – after which, she was met with an unexpected diagnosis.
“I feel like I have razor blades in my vagina. I run to my gynaecologist and I say, ‘Oh my God, what’s happening?’ It was terrible,” she recalled, joking that she has “no shame” sharing her story because it can help other women.
“He said, ‘You have the worst case of herpes I’ve ever seen.’ I’m like, ‘Herpes? I don’t have herpes!'”
Of course, like anyone would, Halle went straight to her other half to ask him about it and they both went for tests which turned out to be negative.
So what was the real culprit behind her pain? It turns out all her symptoms were due to her entering perimenopause.
What is perimenopause?
It refers to the time when the body starts to make its natural transition to menopause, which marks the end of a woman’s reproductive years.
While not everyone will experience these symptoms, Halle was almost certain that she wouldn’t even notice it if it happened to her.
“First of all, my ego told me that I was going to skip [perimenopause],” she began.
“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.”
Since learning that she was in fact experiencing perimenopause, Halle decided to speak up about the topic to help other women understand their bodies more.
“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,'” she said.
“I have to use all of who I am, and I have to start making a change and a difference for other women.”
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