'WORST JOKE IN THE WORLD': Halle Berry thought her sex life was dead after menopause
Halle Berry feared her sex life was over after menopause — which she began just as she met partner Van Hunt.
The 58-year-old actress thought the intimate side of her life was gone forever — but admits that was due to knowing little to nothing about menopause, which she began four years ago, when doctors failed to prepare her for this stage in her life.
The Catwoman star was on a panel alongside Christina Aguilera at a Bare It All event centering on women's health on Monday, where she explained that she wasn't properly educated about menopause, according to People magazine.
'I had no idea that I was in menopause at this time of my life,' Berry said.
'I was 54 years old, no doctor that I had had even mentioned the fact that I would enter into menopause,' she continued.
'So I had this unrealistic idea that maybe I would — OK, don't laugh — but maybe I would just skip it.'
Berry explained that she started struggling with vaginal atrophy, which happens when a woman's estrogen level drops, after menopause, and is when the vagina becomes shorter, less elastic and drier, according to the Canadian Menopause Society.
The timing wasn't ideal since she had just met her partner Van Hunt.
'I was really afraid at that time that I would never enjoy that part of my femininity again and that I had lost that,' Berry admitted.
'I finally found my person and now the worst joke in the world happened to me.'
She explained that she went 'down a rabbit hole' to try to figure out what was happening.
'If my doctor didn't recognize this as a symptom of menopause and nobody ever talked to me about menopause, I can only imagine that there are other women out there, probably millions of women, that know nothing whose doctors know equally nothing,' Berry continued.
The X-Men actress has since founded her own women's wellness company, Respin Health, and collaborated with the CEOs of Joylux, a wellness company that offers women's intimate care products.
'They serviced my very first needs when I realized that I was in menopause, they helped me get my intimacy back and my sex life back,' she explained.
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Ultimately, Berry wants do normalize the topic of women's health, menopause and all the wonderful and not-so-wonderful things that come with being a woman.
'It takes being bold, talking about it, being loud about it, not being afraid to talk about it, not feeling shame, giving other women permission to talk about it,' she said.
'Talking about it with our partners, talking about it with our bosses at work, with our children, deciding that we're worth it, deciding that we have been overlooked for far too long, right?'
Berry added: We can no longer be silent on this issue. It's a health issue. It's a human rights issue, and we need to fight for that.'
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