Halle Berry Shares Her Game-Changing Menopause Secret
Fifty-eight-year-old Halle Berry has always been open about her health struggles. She's spoken about her challenging experience with menopause and how she treats it. The actress takes testosterone to help deal with the symptoms, and it's been a complete game-changer. That said, it was a long road for her to get to that point.
As many as one million women experience menopause every year in the United States and can experience any number of symptoms associated with it, including night sweats, hot flashes, mood swings, vaginal dryness, and more, which can last up to seven years! Halle's menopausal symptom was experiencing pain after intercourse (which her doctor misdiagnosed as herpes). "I feel like I have razor blades in my vagina," she said at the time.
The actress told Oprah Daily in 2024, "I thought, 'Where can I go for answers? Who understands what's happening to me?' I felt very alone and was starting to feel depressed. I wasn't sleeping well, either, so there was a sense of feeling crazy, out of control, and rageful. It was only when I learned these were all symptoms of menopause and did my own research that I started to realize, 'Oh, I can survive this period of time.' Not only survive, but I can thrive with education and knowledge and talking to the right people who understand the menopausal body and women in midlife. That changed everything for me. The reason I feel better is because I'm doing something about it. I'm no longer feeling stuck and like I don't have answers. I'm very active."
Taking Testosterone Was a Game-Changer for Halle Berry
Once determining the correct diagnosis—menopause—testosterone was a total game-changer for Halle, the celeb revealed on The Tamsen Show podcast. She was pretty hesitant to try the drug at first: "I thought, 'I'm not trying to grow hair on my chest.'" After giving it a chance, Halle said she noticed a difference.
As a result of her difficult journey, the actress became an advocate to raise awareness on the topic of menopause and encourages all women to be informed before reaching that chapter of life. Halle even worked with Senator Patty Murray to have a bill passed in congress. "It's for women to get the healthcare they really deserve in midlife—more clinical trials, more therapies developed for us—because it's so lacking," she told Oprah Daily.
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She Is Embracing This Period of Her Life
Halle ended her Oprah Daily interview by encouraging women to embrace whatever stage of life they're in.
"We have to stop trying to be eternally 30 and allow ourselves to be whatever age we are," she said. "We need to embrace ourselves, embrace our body as it changes, embrace our space as it changes. We are blessed to be here. Real confidence and a sense of feeling sexy and empowered come from knowing that we do get better with every year. Society has told us that when we turn a certain age, we're no longer valuable, vital, important. That there's no use for us. But we have to stand up and say no. I reject that theory."
