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Halle Berry joined the A Day of Unreasonable Conversation summit on Monday, March 25, revealing that she had received an incorrect diagnosis of herpes, only to discover that the symptoms were, in fact, indicative of premenopause.
Propper Daley hosted the event and Halle was joined by a star-studded group of women speakers including Kerry Washington, Jane Fonda, Paris Hilton, Cord Jefferson, and First Lady Jill Biden.
Once she and her partner Van Hunt tested negative, “I realized after the fact that is a symptom of perimenopause,” she shared with the panel. 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.'”
Photo by Kamil Krzaczynski/Getty Images
Halle is deeply committed to empowering women with knowledge about their bodies, with a particular focus on raising awareness about menopause. Her dedication stems from her own experience — after seeking medical attention for painful intercourse, she was misdiagnosed with a severe case of herpes.
She not only recounted her journey but also offered her perspective on how women should perceive themselves. She shared with the room that her goal is about “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 also touched on the misconceptions of menopause. “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,” she shared. But she “finally [met] the man of my dreams” in partner Van Hunt, whom she’s been dating since 2020.
As she’s detailing their relationship, the First Lady jokingly chimed in, “I didn’t know she was going to tell this story. I’m not talking about mine!”
Uncommon Knowledge
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Newsweek is committed to challenging conventional wisdom and finding connections in the search for common ground.