Halle Berry has explained how being misdiagnosed with herpes impacted her sex life with partner Van Hunt.
The actor appeared on The Drew Barrymore Show this week, where she discussed a bunch of topics, including her personal life.
The main purpose of Berry's appearance was to promote her latest project, Respin - a startup which aims to help women struggling with the menopause.
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During the interview, Betty candidly opened up on being misdiagnosed with a 'case of herpes', which ultimately impacted her sex life.
The 58-year-old said: "When I was 54 years old, I had just met Van. I manifested this man and we were having the best time. I finally met my person and it was amazing."
Things quickly changed, however, after the Introducing Dorothy Dandridge star felt unbearable pain when she tried to go to the toilet one day.
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"I couldn’t go. It was so painful … it took me almost 10 minutes to just empty my bladder because it was so painful," she said.
"And substances were down there that I had never seen before and I thought, ‘What is this?’"
A speedy trip to the doctors followed, with Berry recalling: "And he [doctor] is doing the exam and looking up there and he said, ‘Yep, uh huh I think I know what this is,’ and I’m like, ‘What?!’ and he said, ‘It’s a really bad case of herpes.'"
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While Berry said she and Hunt spent the 'next 72 hours kind of doing the blame game', she found out she was ultimately misdiagnosed, though health experts had no clue what was causing the actor's symptoms.
Berry added: "He said, ‘You do not have herpes’. And I was like, ‘OK then, what is it?’ And this was the defining moment for me, he said, ‘I don’t know, that’s what it looked like’.
"And that sent me on my own reconnaissance and my own researching and that’s when I came up with Dry Vagina Syndrome, that women have when they are in perimenopause. And I had all the symptoms of what that felt like."
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According to Mayo Clinic, 'perimenopause means "around menopause" and refers to the time during which your body makes the natural transition to menopause, marking the end of the reproductive years'.
With her latest project, Respin, Berry is opening up about her own experience to help other middle-aged women understand their symptoms.
Topics: Celebrity, Halle Berry, Sex and Relationships, Health
Callum Jones