Halle Berry Didn’t Know She Was in Perimenopause for 10 Years. Now, Her Life Mission Is to Help Women Through It
Lindy Segal
·17 min read
All products featured on Glamour are independently selected by Glamour editors. However, when you buy something through our retail links, Condé Nast may earn an affiliate commission.
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.
All products featured on Glamour are independently selected by Glamour editors. However, when you buy something through our retail links, Condé Nast may earn an affiliate commission.
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.
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.
13 Celebrities Who Have Spoken Out About Menopause
Naomi Watts
[Naomi Watts](https://www.glamour.com/about/naomi-watts){: target="_blank"} says she began experiencing menopausal symptoms at 36 years old. “Mood swings, night sweats, and migraines…I was feeling like I was spiraling out of control,” she [told *Hello\!*](https://www.hellomagazine.com/healthandbeauty/health-and-fitness/498161/naomi-watts-marriage-menopause-hollywood-age-exclusive/){: target="_blank"} magazine in July 2023. “I truly believe that if menopause hadn’t been such an off-limits topic when I first started experiencing symptoms, I would’ve had an easier transition.” She continued, “I was part of a cycle that desperately needed to be broken. There was a lack of open conversation and resources to help women navigate the changes we go through. That’s why I’m now so passionate about raising awareness and encouraging more honest conversations.” In 2022, Watts said she had never heard the term *perimenopause*—for the period of transition into menopause—until that point in her life, which made her feel “very lonely.” “I went through anxiety, shame, confusion, panic, and managed to fall pregnant naturally after two years of trying and getting my system right with different alternatives since I wasn’t a candidate for IVF," she said at The New Pause Symposium, [per *People*](https://people.com/naomi-watts-spiraling-after-early-menopause-symptoms-7565831){: target="_blank"}, adding, “I just knew that this is a road that no one else should have to walk through alone again without a community because, without proper care taken, you are going to turn in on yourself.”
James Devaney
Salma Hayek
[Salma Hayek](https://www.glamour.com/about/salma-hayek){: target="_blank"} said that fans thought she got plastic surgery due to an effect of menopause that “not a lot of people talk about.” “The boobs grow a lot,” she said during an appearance [on *Red Table Talk*](https://www.facebook.com/redtabletalk){: target="_blank"} in 2021, [per *People*](https://people.com/health/salma-hayek-says-her-breasts-have-just-kept-growing-as-she-goes-through-menopause/){: target="_blank"}. “For some women, they get smaller. But there are some women that when you gain weight, your boobs grow, and other women that when you have children and you breastfeed, your boobs grow and they don’t go back down. And then in some of the cases, when you are in menopause they grow again. And I just happen to be one of those women where it happened in every, single step\!” She continued, “A lot of people said that I had breast augmentation; I don’t blame them\! My boobs were smaller\! So was the rest of my body,” she said. “But they have just kept growing. Many, many sizes. And my back has been really suffering from it. And not a lot of people talk about this.”
Isaiah Trickey
Kim Cattrall
All the way back in 2014, the [*Sex and the City*](https://www.glamour.com/about/sex-and-the-city){: target="_blank"} star [told *Cosmopolitan*](https://www.cosmopolitan.com/entertainment/interviews/a31451/kim-cattrall-menopause-interview/){: target="_blank"} that she felt “empowered” to talk about menopause. “I don’t think it’s shameful. It's as natural as having a child—it really is; it’s part of life,” [Cattrall](https://www.glamour.com/about/kim-cattrall){: target="_blank"} said at the time. “Physically, it's part of how we’re made; hormonally, it’s how we’re constructed; chemically, it’s how we work. Like anything in nature: The seed is planted, it grows, it comes to fruition, after a period of time it starts to change and age, and it’s scary.” She continued, “You wonder, ‘Will I be attractive, desirable, feminine? What is [the] next chapter of life?’ I think it’s one of the reasons why it’s so taboo is because we don’t talk about—it’s too frightening even to talk to [a] doctor about it. I want to reach out to women to encourage them to educate themselves about this time in their lives.”
WWD/Getty Images
Michelle Obama
In August 2020, Michelle Obama opened up about menopause on her new Spotify podcast with gynecologist Sharon Malone. “I have a very healthy baseline, and also, well, I was experiencing hormone shifts because of infertility, having to take shots and all that,” Obama explained. “I experienced the night sweats, even in my 30s, and when you think of the other symptoms that come along, just hot flashes, I mean, I had a few before I started taking hormones.” She even discussed an experience having hot flashes on Marine One during her husband’s presidency. “I remember having one on Marine One. I’m dressed, I need to get out, walk into an event, and literally, it was like somebody put a furnace in my core and turned it on high, and then everything started melting. And I thought, Well, this is crazy—I can’t, I can’t, I can’t do this,” she said. Apparently Barack Obama was unfazed, his wife reported: “He didn’t fall apart because he found out there were several women in his staff that were going through menopause. It was just sort of like, ‘Oh, well, turn the air conditioner on.’”
Getty Images
Emma Thompson
The [*Late Night*](https://www.glamour.com/story/late-night-director-nisha-ganatra) actor joked about using her hot flashes to her advantage at the National Board of Review in 2014 while [accepting the best actress award](https://abcnews.go.com/blogs/entertainment/2014/01/why-emma-thompson-is-grateful-for-menopause/) for *Saving Mr. Banks.* “It’s such a cold night. You know, it’s the first time I’ve been actively grateful for the menopause,” she said in her speech.
David M. Benett/Getty Images
Kim Cattrall
The [*Sex and the City*](https://www.glamour.com/about/sex-and-the-city) actor took a more serious approach to the topic in an interview [with *Cosmopolitan*](https://www.cosmopolitan.com/entertainment/interviews/a31451/kim-cattrall-menopause-interview/) also in 2014. “I feel empowered talking about menopause because I’m going through it and have been going through it for six years,” she said. “I’m very fortunate to have a platform to speak to women about it because of *SATC*—it was such a dream job. And [Samantha was] also a dream character to play who went through all kinds of changes and challenges related to getting older and being single and being upfront and honest about it. Playing that character really inspired me to be very open in accessing my feelings about what's going on…. Millions of women are going through it; it’s part of nature. But it can be very confusing and isolating.” Cattrall added that menopause is not “shameful” but a completely natural part of life. “It’s as natural as having a child—it really is; it’s part of life,” she continued. “Physically, it’s part of how we’re made; hormonally, it’s how we’re constructed; chemically, it’s how we work. Like anything in nature: The seed is planted, it grows, it comes to fruition, after a period of time it starts to change and age, and it’s scary. You wonder, Will I be attractive, desirable, feminine? What is next chapter of life? I think it’s one of the reasons why it’s so taboo is because we don’t talk about it—it’s too frightening even to talk to a doctor about it. I want to reach out to women to encourage them to educate themselves about this time in their lives.”
Alberto E. Rodriguez/Getty Images
Oprah Winfrey
The legendary [Oprah Winfrey](https://www.glamour.com/about/oprah-winfrey) saw menopause as an opportunity to focus on herself. “So many women I’ve talked to see menopause as a blessing,” she said [in her own magazine](https://www.oprahmag.com/life/health/a29109829/oprah-menopause-symptoms/) in 2019. “I’ve discovered that this is your moment to reinvent yourself after years of focusing on the needs of everyone else.” Winfrey hopes to shed light on the mysteries of approaching menopause after realizing she was never prepared for its symptoms or physical repercussions. “For two years I didn’t sleep well. Never a full night. No peace. Restlessness and heart palpitations were my steady companions at nightfall. This was back when I was 48 to 50,” she said. “I went to see a cardiologist. Took medication. Wore a heart monitor for weeks. And then one day, walking through the offices of *The Oprah Winfrey Show*, I picked up a copy of [*The Wisdom of Menopause*](https://www.amazon.com/Wisdom-Menopause-Revised-Creating-Emotional/dp/0553386727?linkCode=ogi&tag=oprah-auto-20&ascsubtag=%5Bartid%7C10072.a.29109829%5Bsrc%7C%5Bch%7C%5Blt%7C){: target="_blank"}, Dr. Christiane Northrup’s book, and the pages fell open to the heading ‘Palpitations: Your Heart’s Wake-Up Call.’ I took it as a sign. “Contained in that book was the answer I’d been going doctor to doctor trying to figure out,” she continued. “Until that point in my adult life, I don’t recall one serious conversation with another woman about what to expect.”
Steve Granitz/Getty Images
Gwyneth Paltrow
The queen of [Goop](https://www.glamour.com/about/goop) wants to rebrand menopause. “I think when you get into perimenopause, you notice a lot of changes. I can feel the hormonal shifts happening, the sweating, the moods—you’re all of a sudden furious for no reason,” she shared [with Goop in 2018](https://www.instagram.com/p/BphYgkvHJKB/). “Menopause gets a really bad rap and needs a bit of rebranding. I remember when my mother went through menopause and it was such a big deal, and I think there was grief around it for her and all these emotions. I don’t think we have in our society a great example of an aspirational menopausal woman.”
Christopher Polk/NBC/Getty Images
Cynthia Nixon
In 2017, the *Sex and the City* star shared that she’s going through menopause at the same time as her wife, Christine. “There has been no sadness for me because once you hit 50, you’re done,” she [told *Stella Magazine*](https://www.telegraph.co.uk/films/2017/04/09/cynthia-nixon-wife-going-menopause-together/), adding that “the freedom that comes from no longer being fertile is huge.”
Bruce Glikas/Getty Images
Bette Midler
Bette Midler has been telling women not to stress about menopause since 2001. “I don’t suggest that anyone obsess over menopause or aging. Still, it is true that in this culture, they throw you out when you get older,” she [told Oprah Winfrey](https://people.com/health/celebrities-talking-about-menopause/?slide=6913328#6913328){: target="_blank"} in an interview. “I see it all the time, especially in my business. At my age, you’re playing somebody’s mother—and there aren’t even a lot of those roles\!”
Vera Anderson/Getty Images
Gillian Anderson
Gillian Anderson, who played Margaret Thatcher on *The Crown*, has been open about going through early menopause for years. “How wonderful would it be if we could get to a place where we are able to have these conversations openly and without shame,” she [told *People* in 2017](https://people.com/bodies/gillian-anderson-perimenopause-depression/){: target="_blank"}. “Admit, freely, that this is what’s going on. So we don’t feel like we’re going mad or insane or alone in any of the symptoms we are having. “Perimenopause and menopause should be treated as the rites of passage that they are,” she continued. “If not celebrated, then at least accepted and acknowledged and honored.”
Vera Anderson/Getty Images
Whoopi Goldberg
Unsurprisingly Whoopi Goldberg has used humor to address the symptoms of menopause—like those extreme temperature changes. “How can you keep a man [erect] for 19 hours and not be able to cool down a hot flash? How is that possible?” she said in a [standup routine](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CCMvrLIHCzg){: target="_blank"}.
Mondadori Portfolio/Getty Images
Julie Walters
Famed British actor Julie Walters [spoke to SAGA](https://www.saga.co.uk/magazine/entertainment/celebrities/julie-walters){: target="_blank"} about what it was like going through menopause in 2015. “Oh, God\! It was like a chimney and came from the base of my spine. I was doing this TV show called *Murder,* and every take there’d be, ‘Stop\! She’s having a flush\!’” she said. “At the National, I’d come offstage for a quick change and have to shout, ‘Garth, the *tray*\!’ And this guy would come with this big tin tray and fan me. *Harry Potter,* I was in a wig and padding, and they had to put this big tube of air conditioning in my face\!”
Samir Hussein
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.
All products featured on Glamour are independently selected by Glamour editors. However, when you buy something through our retail links, Condé Nast may earn an affiliate commission.
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.
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{: target="_blank"} says she began experiencing menopausal symptoms at 36 years old. “Mood swings, night sweats, and migraines…I was feeling like I was spiraling out of control,” she [told *Hello\!*](https://www.hellomagazine.com/healthandbeauty/health-and-fitness/498161/naomi-watts-marriage-menopause-hollywood-age-exclusive/){: target="_blank"} magazine in July 2023. “I truly believe that if menopause hadn’t been such an off-limits topic when I first started experiencing symptoms, I would’ve had an easier transition.”
She continued, “I was part of a cycle that desperately needed to be broken. There was a lack of open conversation and resources to help women navigate the changes we go through. That’s why I’m now so passionate about raising awareness and encouraging more honest conversations.”
In 2022, Watts said she had never heard the term *perimenopause*—for the period of transition into menopause—until that point in her life, which made her feel “very lonely.”
“I went through anxiety, shame, confusion, panic, and managed to fall pregnant naturally after two years of trying and getting my system right with different alternatives since I wasn’t a candidate for IVF," she said at The New Pause Symposium, [per *People*](https://people.com/naomi-watts-spiraling-after-early-menopause-symptoms-7565831){: target="_blank"}, adding, “I just knew that this is a road that no one else should have to walk through alone again without a community because, without proper care taken, you are going to turn in on yourself.”](https://s.yimg.com/ny/api/res/1.2/.7Vcu.tICZtlbU.jINaeUw--/YXBwaWQ9aGlnaGxhbmRlcjt3PTk2MDtoPTE0MTI-/https://media.zenfs.com/en/glamour_497/f6ece07080b588c55142694b51a9eef0)
{: target="_blank"} said that fans thought she got plastic surgery due to an effect of menopause that “not a lot of people talk about.”
“The boobs grow a lot,” she said during an appearance [on *Red Table Talk*](https://www.facebook.com/redtabletalk){: target="_blank"} in 2021, [per *People*](https://people.com/health/salma-hayek-says-her-breasts-have-just-kept-growing-as-she-goes-through-menopause/){: target="_blank"}. “For some women, they get smaller. But there are some women that when you gain weight, your boobs grow, and other women that when you have children and you breastfeed, your boobs grow and they don’t go back down. And then in some of the cases, when you are in menopause they grow again. And I just happen to be one of those women where it happened in every, single step\!”
She continued, “A lot of people said that I had breast augmentation; I don’t blame them\! My boobs were smaller\! So was the rest of my body,” she said. “But they have just kept growing. Many, many sizes. And my back has been really suffering from it. And not a lot of people talk about this.”](https://s.yimg.com/ny/api/res/1.2/qIZZ3_x3p2R_X4GFItn9Bw--/YXBwaWQ9aGlnaGxhbmRlcjt3PTk2MDtoPTE0NDA-/https://media.zenfs.com/en/glamour_497/0627508ee7f95db268bcf50418561d53)
{: target="_blank"} star [told *Cosmopolitan*](https://www.cosmopolitan.com/entertainment/interviews/a31451/kim-cattrall-menopause-interview/){: target="_blank"} that she felt “empowered” to talk about menopause.
“I don’t think it’s shameful. It's as natural as having a child—it really is; it’s part of life,” [Cattrall](https://www.glamour.com/about/kim-cattrall){: target="_blank"} said at the time. “Physically, it's part of how we’re made; hormonally, it’s how we’re constructed; chemically, it’s how we work. Like anything in nature: The seed is planted, it grows, it comes to fruition, after a period of time it starts to change and age, and it’s scary.”
She continued, “You wonder, ‘Will I be attractive, desirable, feminine? What is [the] next chapter of life?’ I think it’s one of the reasons why it’s so taboo is because we don’t talk about—it’s too frightening even to talk to [a] doctor about it. I want to reach out to women to encourage them to educate themselves about this time in their lives.”](https://s.yimg.com/ny/api/res/1.2/ddB.onxPf8eLqau7Wn3hkA--/YXBwaWQ9aGlnaGxhbmRlcjt3PTk2MDtoPTEzNDQ-/https://media.zenfs.com/en/glamour_497/dd00838a830863ac9c89daa6e34ec211)
