Halle Berry is opening up about a doctor misdiagnosing her with the “worst case of herpes” when she was actually experiencing perimenopause.
The actress, 57, got candid about the herpes scare during a conversation with First Lady Dr. Jill Biden at the A Day of Unreasonable Conversation summit in Los Angeles on Monday (March 25), per US Weekly.
Berry recalled her doctor diagnosing her with the “worst case of herpes he’d ever seen.”
“First of all, my ego told me that I was going to skip [perimenopause] — 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,” Berry said.
Berry admitted that menopause was “not even a thought on my mind.” She went to the doctor after experiencing “extreme pain” during intimacy with her boyfriend, Van Hunt.
So one day, we’re having sex like normal,” Berry recalled. “I wake up in the morning, I go to the bathroom, and guess what? I feel like I have razor blades in my vagina.”
Berry said she consulted a gynecologist, who said she “messed up” and had an STD. However, when she and Hunt got tested, their results came back negative.
“Neither one of us has herpes,” the Hollywood star said. “I realized, after the fact, that [the sensation] is a symptom of perimenopause.”
Berry said her doctor “had no knowledge” of perimenopause, which is a “transitional phase before menopause characterized by hormonal fluctuations and irregular menstrual cycles,” per US Weekly.
“[He] didn’t prepare me,” she said. “That’s when I knew, ‘Oh my gosh, I’ve gotta use my platform. I have to use all of who I am and I have to start making a change and a difference.’”
Berry said Monday that menopause is “a glorious time of life,” and her goal is to change “the way women and men feel about women during their midlife and how they feel about” the condition.
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