One look at Halle Berry, and you might wonder if some people are simply immune to the rules of biology. (Perhaps you saw in November when she slipped back into her iconic Elie Saab Oscars dress, 22 years later?) But at age 58, she’s here to tell you that even A-listers go through perimenopause.
In Berry’s case, she wasn’t even aware of it—suffering through premenopause symptoms like sudden sweats, headaches, and memory loss for years before finally learning the reason why, at 54.
“When I found out that I was in peri and that none of my doctors had even mentioned this time of life to me, it just got me on fire to get all the information I could about myself, for myself,” Berry tells Glamour.
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The actor rose to fame playing fashion-obsessed waitress Caroline Channing on 2 Broke Girls, and now stars as Gemma Johnson on the long-running CBS sitcom The Neighborhood.
The more she learned about menopause, the more passionate she felt about the topic—eventually launching Respin, a health and wellness platform serving women throughout their menopause experience. (Respin 2.0 will launch in January 2025.)
“I realized if I knew so little [about menopause], I’m sure so many other women have the same little information,” she says.
Since then, Berry has lobbied for the bipartisan Advancing Menopause Care and Mid-Life Women’s Health Act and appears alongside four medical experts in the first-ever women’s health class on MasterClass, “The Magic of Menopause,” streaming now.
Ahead, Berry talks to Glamour about what prompted her second act, how perimenopause affected her life and career, and how just how great it felt getting to wear that iconic Oscars dress again.
Glamour: In “The Magic of Menopause,” you admit you didn’t think about menopause until you were well into perimenopause. What were you feeling?
Halle Berry: I was probably 10 years into it and had no clue. I thought I was going crazy. I had really bad memory loss. I had a hard time concentrating, I flooded my laundry room three times, and I would leave my keys stuck in doorways. I could never find my phone. I was walking into rooms and not remembering why I was there. These were things that were not a part of my makeup before this time period. I started to think, Oh God, am I starting to have early onset dementia? Is something happening to my brain?
I got very aggro. I was wanting to argue with everybody about every little thing, and that was so not me. I was always the chill one in the conversation or in the room. I had a hard time sleeping, and I guess sleep deprivation is a form of torture. It felt like I was falling apart at the seams, and nobody seemed to be able to relate. Everybody just said, “Oh, it’s just a time of life. You’re getting old. Just deal with it.” But I didn’t feel old. I didn’t feel like it was time for me just to pack it up and wander off to pasture, but yet that’s kind of what everybody started to tell me. I felt crazy and alone and afraid. I felt ashamed.
When I realized I was in perimenopause and could put a name to it, I started investigating and doing my own research and reconnaissance. I realized, oh, this is what’s been happening to me for a decade. It was so enlightening.
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So you were going through all of this, and everyone was just telling you that you were fine?
Women need more support, we need more therapies, and we need to be studied. More doctors need to understand it. I realized the menopausal body is only a chapter in medical school for doctors. I mean, how can they help us when they know nothing about it? It’s not been made important, and it’s just time for that to change. It really has become my life mission.
How has your experience been navigating this time in Hollywood, and in the public eye?
I often felt that I had to act as if these things weren’t happening. If I were in the middle of a scene and got a hot flash, I had to just act as if it wasn’t happening or somehow try to incorporate what was happening involuntarily to my body into the scene, or into my character in some way.
I worked a lot with massive headaches, not feeling like I could say, “I’m having a symptom of menopause, everybody.” One, I didn’t even have the language. I didn’t even know that’s the state I was in. I had many, many sleepless nights. I would come to work very tired, and I just had to suffer through it.
What’s your advice for those approaching, or in, this time of life?
First of all, I think women should start thinking about this at age 35. When we are in our baby-making years, you don’t have to worry. Your body is full of estrogen normally, unless you’ve had a hysterectomy or you’ve had some other issue that’s caused [early] menopause.
At 35, you should start thinking that estrogen is leaving. How do I want to live my midlife years? If you want to go down the path of HRT [hormone replacement therapy], the sooner you start, the better. So, I would say to find a knowledgeable doctor who specializes in the menopausal body and make these decisions for yourself. Deep dive into this subject. Come to Respin, because that’s what our mission is—to help educate women, help them make informed choices so that they can decide how they want to live their midlife years.
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And you can buy it today.
If there’s anything that shows that menopause really is magic, it’s that you recently rewore your Elie Saab Oscars dress from 2002. How did that feel?
Well, that was fun. Elie Saab and I have had a wonderful relationship for 20 years because of that moment. He got on the map, and I got to make history in the same night. What we share is pretty magical. And I actually got to meet him! I had never met him in all of these years, so I got to not only meet him face to face, but to be there to celebrate his career and put that dress back on again was just a magical little moment.
You’re doing so much work with Respin now, and of course still acting. What are some career goals that you still have?
I have a production company now, so I want to produce and tell stories. I want to direct. I’m working on a project now, and when it’s ready, the wine will be poured. Acting is something I still love to do, but I really am going to be focusing more and more on my second act, which is my business of Respin, and re-spinning this thing called menopause and helping women respin it for themselves. It really is what I’m most passionate about.
Glamour readers can get exclusive access to Respin 2.0, launching in January 2025, here.
The post Halle Berry Didn’t Know She Was in Perimenopause for 10 Years. Now, Her Life Mission Is to Help Women Through It appeared first on Glamour.
