Halle Berry admits nightmare doctor trip made her speak up on women’s health

Halle Berry is a very vocal advocate of perimenopause education, and her advocacy was spurred by a distressing encounter during a doctor's visit.

Speaking at the A Day of Unreasonable Conversation summit on Monday, the 57-year-old actress recounted a misdiagnosis by a doctor who mistakenly diagnosed her with the “worst case of herpes he’d ever seen.”

Upon receiving negative test results and confirming it was perimenopause, Berry recognized a glaring gap in women’s reproductive health education, prompting her to take action.

“First of all, my ego told me that I was going to skip it [perimenopause] – I’m very safe, I’m healthy, I managed to get myself off insulin and manage my diabetes since I’m 20 years old,” she recalled while talking to First Lady Jill Biden.

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,” she explained.

The Oscar-winning actress further declared that ever since her own unfortunate experience, she wanted to “help us change the way culture views women at this stage of our lives.”