Halle Berry's doctor misdiagnosed her perimenopause symptoms as herpes

During an appearance on 'The Drew Barrymore Show', Halle explained: "I tried to go to the bathroom and I couldn't go. It was so painful when I tried to let a little bit out. I couldn't go. It took me almost 10 minutes just to empty my bladder because it was so painful.

"Substances were down there that I had never seen before. And I thought, 'What is this?'"

After seeing a doctor, she was diagnosed with a "really bad case of herpes", and Halle added: "We spend the next 72 hours doing the blame game, trying to figure out who gave it to me, who gave it to him. And then a couple of hours after that, my doctor called me and said, 'You do not have herpes'."

Halle went on to do some research and discovered her symptoms were linked to perimenopause - which hits prior to menopause.

She explained: " That's when I came up with dry vagina syndrome that women have when they're in perimenopause. And I had all the symptoms of what that felt like and I realised, 'Oh, I'm 54 years old'."

Halle launched her own wellness platform Respin in 2020, but she recently repurposed it to focus on menopause and women's health issues.

The actress has also been campaigning for more research into the menopause and more funding for treatments.

She recently told Women's Health magazine: "As women, we've been told that's it's just what happens when you get older - you just have to white-knuckle it, grin and bear it. Well, no, that's just not good enough."