Halle Berry’s Doctor Misdiagnosed Her With the ‘Worst Case of Herpes’ Due to Perimenopause Symptom

[hewontgo]

Halle Berry is opening up about experiencing a herpes scare that was actually a case of perimenopause. https://t.co/NASr8hXJUn
- Us Weekly (@usweekly) March 26, 2024

Halle Berry, 57, is opening up about experiencing a herpes scare that was actually a case of perimenopause.

"First of all, my ego told me that I was going to skip [perimenopause] - I

Comments

[angriest_girl]

There are something like 40 different symptoms of perimenopause but you only ever really hear about hot flushes and mood swings. I had so many different symptoms over the first couple of years and went to so many doctors and specialists thinking I was either dying or going crazy, and even though I was in my mid 40s, not one of them mentioned menopause until I finally put the pieces together and asked my dr “Could this be perimenopause?”. She literally just shrugged and said “Yeah, could be.” How is it that something that impacts 50-ish % of the population is so little understood even by doctors?

It’s been 10 years now and I’m wondering if it will ever bloody end (I can’t take HRT for other reasons). :-(

[carminaburana]

I’m so sorry but hopefully you are close to being done? The disinterest of doctors is just infuriating. It can be such a vulnerable time - they need to get a clue.

My dr won’t put me on HRT (i may end up changing doctors), but she did put me on birth control and it does help a little. My worst symptoms are insomnia (not so much falling asleep but the 3/4 am wakeup is brutal), low energy, muscle and joint pain, no libido, anxiety, high emotional reactivity, lack of body temp control. When the sleep stuff is managed, the rest is kind of tolerable - but the sleeplessness adds such a layer of misery!

Since you can’t take HRT, how are you managing symptoms?

[ishumy]

Can I ask you how do you feel birth control has helped you?

[carminaburana]

Sure - before i went on bc, i could not get out of bed most days. Once i went on, it regulated my cycle and eased some of the hormonal fluctuations. I stopped getting the hormonal migraines and no longer have the major depressive episodes i would get leading up to my periods. I still have some of the toughest symptoms (insomonia, joint pain, anxiety), but there is definite improvement.

[angriest_girl]

Oh my god, the 3am wake up is the worst. That happens to me at least a couple of times a week, and I’m a bad sleeper at the best of times, so I haven’t even got an unbroken few hours before that happens. I have forgotten what it’s like to not feel tired

[carminaburana]

I can definitely relate to the barely-functional feeling (being able to work remote has been a gamechanger). Are you able to work from home at all?

Some herbs have really helped me. I drink a tea made with rose, oatstraw, sage, and nettles and when i drink that every morning, my night sweats ease. If you have any connections to a local herbalist, that might be helpful.

One symptom that i forgot to mention and didn’t see listed in any comments above - my digestive system has transformed. I’ve started having bad acid reflux and am less tolerant of a lot of foods. I know hormones can play a role there too. I basically blame everything on peri now. 🤣

[angriest_girl]

I was doing ad hoc wfh days when I had really heavy bleeding or severe anaemia from the bleeding, but then I had a “talking to” about how it was too many (I’ll just tell my periods to stop, shall I?). I just recently got them to let me do hybrid so Thu - Wed every second week is wfh. But even getting that was such a drama. And god knows what will happen if I have heavy bleeding on a week I am meant to be in the office 😒

I have a drawer full of teas and some of them have helped some things, but it’s been summer here and I tend to off drinking anything other than water in hot weather. I was drinking a lot of nettle tea, but I can’t even remember why now lol. Also hibiscus as my blood pressure has also skyrocketed in perimenopause.

One weird thing I have had is that I used to love coriander (cilantro), and now I hate it. I thought the like/dislike of that was some kind of genetic thing so now I’m like wait, does menopause alter your GENES????

[winter_lace]

It’s been 10 years now and I’m wondering if it will ever bloody end

The most depressing thing I know is that for some women it doesn't