Halle Berry Recalls How She Was Mistakenly Diagnosed With Herpes

While appearing on The Drew Barrymore Show on Tuesday, Halle Berry and host Drew Barrymore spoke about how they both are navigating the journey of perimenopause — with the Oscar winner sharing that her diagnosis was anything but typical. 

Sitting on Drew’s famous couch, Halle said that her prognosis for perimenopause, which is when a woman’s body makes the natural transition to menopause, came four years ago when she was 54.

The Monster’s Ball star explained that her doctor was confident in his diagnosis — but it took her by surprise.

“He’s doing the exam, and he’s looking up there — and he says, ‘Yup, I think I know what this is’,” she said, adding that the doctor later told her that she had a “really bad case of herpes”. 

Her boyfriend, Van Hunt, drove her to her appointment because, as she recalled, her private area was “so swollen” that she “couldn’t put her legs together to drive”.

She then said that, for the next “72 hours”, the couple initiated the “blame game” to find out who was the cause of the supposed sexually transmitted disease. 

“A couple hours after that, my doctor called me and said, ‘You do not have herpes’,” Halle continued.

Relieved by the news, the actor was still left wondering why she was experiencing such discomfort in her nether regions. Frustratingly, her doctor seemed clueless about her condition, so Halle did her “own research” to assess what was happening to her body.

Her research led to a discovery: “dry vagina syndrome”, a condition women can have when they experience perimenopause, with Halle sharing with Drew that she “had all the symptoms.

“I realised, I’m 54 years old,” she said. “I learned that perimenopause can start in your late 30s, even in [your] early 40s.” 

Halle went on to explain that “no one had a serious conversation” with her about the condition, and Drew then chimed in, saying that “there’s no real age, rhyme or reason” for perimenopause before both agreed that “everybody goes through it differently”.

The Catwoman actor has previously talked about her herpes misdiagnosis, saying in a Forbes article published last year: “The doctor should have never made that diagnosis.”