Halle Berry Was Told She Had Herpes, Turns Out It Was Perimenopause

“First of all, my ego told me I was going to skip it,” Halle Berry, 57, told the first lady of the United States, Jill Biden.

The actress was talking about menopause.

The conversation took place within the

A Day of Unreasonable Conversation

series organized by the social impact agency Propper Daley, at the Getty Center in Los Angeles (California), in which other figures such as actresses Kerry Washington and Jane Fonda also participated. Paris Hilton.

In this context, the Oscar winner and the first lady sat down on Monday to talk about women's health, menopause and the need to embrace other stages of life that do not have as much visibility.

The conversation came after President Biden signed an executive order focused on boosting research on women's health last week.

“At 54 years old, I finally met the man of my dreams,” continued Berry, who went on to talk about her extensive sex life with her new partner, musician Van Hunt, 54.

The interpreter recalled to the public that she had felt a lot of pain after having so many sexual relations and having gone to the doctor, who told her that she had the worst herpes she had ever seen in her life.

So both Berry and Hunt got tested, but it turned out that neither of them had herpes.

“Then I found out it was a symptom of perimenopause,” Berry explained.

The pain was caused by vaginal dryness, a common side effect during this stage.

From there came her new line of business: “My doctor did not have the appropriate knowledge and did not prepare me.

So I thought, 'I have to use my platform, I have to use everything I have and who I am to make a change and a difference in other women's lives.'

This is how rē•spin was born, a digital platform focused on health and well-being for women who are in the premenopause and menopause period.

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The platform was born last January, and it was the actress herself who explained what it was about through the website: “Over the last two years, I have become increasingly interested in sharing my own experiences with menopause to break the stigma that still surrounds us,” explained Berry.

“This renewed focus on menopause is necessary because it not only affects all women, but it also affects everyone who knows a woman, is married to a woman, works with a woman, or has a daughter, and, of course, a mother.

Like puberty, menopause is an essential phase of life, a change that directly affects more than half of the world's population.

My goal is to empower women to embrace this natural transition and be inspired by the eternal beauty that accompanies it,” stated the interpreter.

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A post shared by Halle Berry (@halleberry)

At the moment, the business line of the Halle Berry community – which is already the image of Pendulum, a brand of supplements and vitamins – is not entirely clear.

A website with informative content and social media accounts with a very Instagram aesthetic seem to be the two bases on which her brand is based.

Despite this, the actress seems to follow the line of other colleagues who have recently launched similar businesses, focused on women over 40, but especially over 50, as a target audience.

Perhaps the most popular of all, without a doubt, is the actress Gwyneth Paltrow, who was already known for her particular and luxurious approach to well-being through her almighty Goop brand, where in recent years she has been giving up more and more space. to menopause.

Paltrow, who does not take a wrong step, has already spoken about menopause in several media.

Specifically, in an interview in the American edition of

Vogue

, she said: “I think menopause has a very bad reputation and needs a little

rebranding

.”

She added: “I don't think we have a great example of an aspirational menopausal woman in our society.”

Said and done, a few months later, Goop launched Madame Ovary, a bundle of vitamins and supplements supposedly designed to help regulate hormones in women in their 40s, 50s, and 60s.

Another professional colleague who has joined this bandwagon has been Naomi Watts, who launched Stripes a little over a year ago, a cosmetics brand in the purest Goop style, which is designed for women who, like her, are beginning to manifest the first symptoms of menopause on the skin: “Throughout my career as an actress, I have overcome tsunamis and come face to face with King Kong, but nothing prepared me for early menopause.

I would wake up in the middle of the night, drenched in sweat.

My skin was dry and itchy.

My hormones were all over the place.

I remember feeling so confused and alone, like I had no control over my own body.

I created Stripes because we deserve support, solutions, and a space to figure it all out.

Because while menopause may be part of middle age, middle age is much more than just menopause,” explains the actress herself through her website.

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Gwyneth Paltrow, Cameron Diaz, Drew Barrymore and Demi Moore are also investors in the

startup

Evernow, a telemedicine company that offers consultations by instant message with a specialized team that coordinates the delivery of prescribed hormone therapies through subscription, focused on women in menopause and thanks to these actresses it has already raised around 28.5 million dollars.

And this is a topic that not only Hollywood actresses are involved in, tennis player Serena Williams, through her venture capital firm, Serena Ventures, also invested in a company called Wile, founded by actress Judy Greer, who has created a brand of plant-based supplements to relieve the symptoms of perimenopause and menopause, which is now on sale in Whole Foods supermarkets in the United States.