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Topics: Celebrity, Sex and Relationships
Gerrard Kaonga
Topics: Celebrity, Sex and Relationships
Halle Berry wasn’t afraid to open up about how a misdiagnosis by a doctor threw a spanner into the works of her relationship.
Actress Halle Berry featured on The Drew Barrymore Show this week in order to promote her latest project, Respin - a startup which aims to help woman suffering from some of the impacts of menopause.
And during her interview, the star got candid about some of her own less-than-ideal situations she has had to deal with.
Most confusingly, when she was mistakenly diagnosed with herpes as this immediately caused an issue with her new partner at the time, musician Van Hunt.
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Speaking on the show, Berry joked that she manifested Hunt, and explained the relationship was going well.
Speaking to Barrymore, Berry said: “When I was 54 years old I had just met Van, I manifested this man, I had just met him and we were having the best time, I had finally met my person.
“It was amazing, it really truly was amazing, and then one morning I tried to go to the bathroom and I couldn’t go.
“It was so painful when I tried to let a little out, I couldn’t go, I had to squeeze it, it took me almost 10 minutes to empty my bladder because it was so painful.
“Substances were down there that I had never seen before and I just thought what is this.”
She continued: “I go to the doctor and he said 'yup, I think I know what this is', he said it is a very bad case of herpes.
“Van, my guy, drove me there because this was so swollen I couldn’t even put my legs together to drive so we spend the next 72 hours kind of doing the blame game.
“Trying to figure out who gave it to me, who gave it to him and then a couple hours after that my doctor called me and said you do not have herpes.
“This was the defining moment for me, he said I don’t know, that is what it looked like and that sent me on my own reconnaissance and my own researching and that is when I came up with dry vagina syndrome that women have when they are in Perimenopause.”
Perimenopause is the 'natural process caused when your ovaries gradually stop working', according to Johns Hopkins Medicine.
"Perimenopause is the transitional time around menopause. Menopause is when a woman’s periods stop. It’s marked by changes in the menstrual cycle, along with other physical and emotional symptoms," it adds.
As you can imagine this little mishap would have put some needless strain on the relationship, but the pair were able to get past it and are still together now.
Berry closed by insisting it was important for women to get more comfortable discussing the highs and lows of menopause and in turn being open to discussing the issues so their partners can support them better.