Halle Berry's Shocking Revelation: Misdiagnosed Perimenopause
Halle Berry is back to making headlines, and…it’s personal. Real personal. Berry had a conversation during Propper Daley's fourth "A Day of Unreasonable Conversation" summit with First Lady Dr. Jill Biden about menopause and women’s health. Berry admitted that her doctor misdiagnosed her perimenopause symptoms as “the worst case of herpes I’ve ever seen.”
Immediately shocked, Berry denied having the sexually transmitted disease. She even confronted her partner, musician VanHunt. The two lovers were tested and were able to rule out the herpes diagnosis.
When a woman goes through perimenopause, her body is making its natural transition to menopause, which means the end of a woman's reproductive years. Perimenopause comes with a myriad of symptoms, including vaginal dryness.
Berry had gone to the gynecologist because she experienced pain after intercourse with her partner. She told Dr. Biden, “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!”
Berry 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.’”
The 57-year-old superstar assumed that because of her tip-top health, she wouldn’t even experience menopause. Berry said, “My ego told me that I was going to skip [perimenopause],” I'm in great shape. I'm healthy. I managed to get myself off of insulin and manage my diabetes since I'm 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.”
To be uneducated as a patient is one thing. But to be uneducated about menopause as a gynecologist…let’s just say here’s hoping Berry has found a new doctor.