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

[ellie_andrews]

Berry’s doctor had no knowledge of perimenopause

???

buck wild

[bostongirl2003]

after learning about that Dr Death guy who somehow got certified as a surgeon when he couldn't identify muscle tissue, nothing surprises me anymore.

[ellie_andrews]

omg

[emerald_soul]

That was INSANE.

[clickyraptor]

Has anyone who’s gotten Covid noticed their periods are more painful now? I’m 38 almost 39 so not sure if it’s peri or just another long game from Covid. (I’m at the point where I want to ask my doctor for pain meds that aren’t Tylenol or Advil but lmao, this is America! so that will never happen.)

Also fuck that doctor. Women deserve better.

[ty]

That's probably peri. And yeah, people who had a liver removed cannot get pain meds, so not likely you will

[clickyraptor]

We’ve gone so far in the opposite direction with (non) pain management here. It’s so bad. “Yes, doctor, I will keep taking liver and kidney destroying amounts of Tylenol and pretend I don’t know there’s a better alternative!”

[insomniachobs]

Anecdotally, a lot of my female friends feel that their periods changed in various ways after covid. It's just impossible to be sure it's related because we're all of an age anyway where you might expect some peri stuff to kick in

[silvertongue5]

Does anybody want to share their symptoms? It's so confusing

[angriest_girl]

I’ve had dozens over the past ten years. Some have gone away, some come and go, some I can manage if I’m careful, some have just popped up in the last couple of years. My personal experience:

- muscle pains
- heart palpitations
- headaches
- anxiety (never an anxious person before)
- insomnia
- fatigue / low energy
- really low tolerance for anything even slightly annoying, I just go off like a frog in a sock about anything
- brain fog (then you worry about dementia)
- inability to focus
- loss of hair
- change in sense of smell and taste
- heavy periods, and I mean like haemorrhaging
- difficulty controlling body temperature (I don’t get hot flushes as such with the sweating and stuff but my body will suddenly heat up and I’ll go red in the face at random times)

Some people get lucky and sail through with little going on. Some of us get the whole shebang.

[januarysix]

oh interesting, I've heard about heavy periods but I went the opposite way. like 3 day periods. I am dryer down there. I did not know heart palpitations were related to perimenopause.

[angriest_girl]

Yeah, the heart thing is your hormones going up and down. It’s really unsettling and scary, even when you know what is causing it. :-/

You’re really lucky having lighter periods. I’ve had multiple days where I can’t move more than a few feet from the bathroom for hours, and ended up in hospital recently from having lost so much blood. They debated a blood transfusion, that’s how bad it was. I’ve had a couple of iron transfusions, but they don’t seem to do much for me.

[carminaburana]

I’ve been in peri for at least four years and it’s been one of the hardest things i’ve gone through. You absolutely feel gaslit by doctors, medical professionals, and anyone who doesn’t know what you are going through. It really does not have to be this hard. One of the more positive aspects is that it really forces you to become more intimately familiar with your body and all of its patterns (mostly in order to self-advocate with the shitty medical establishment if you live in the US). If you have the right supports, it can actually be a really transformative time and now that i’m managing some of the worse symptoms, i’m trying to embrace that transformation mindset.

[angriest_girl]

I feel you, mate ❤️

[anterrabre]

You are heard, and wishing you the best in navigating this stage of your life and the next.

[carminaburana]

Thanks bb 💚

[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.