Women’s reproductive health has always been focused on two things: puberty and pregnancy. It’s the third “P” that always gets forgotten: perimenopause and menopause. That’s why First Lady Dr. Jill Biden is making research and initiatives a huge part of her husband President Joe Biden’s administration.
On Monday the First Lady sat down for a one-on-one discussion with Halle Berry to talk about their personal experiences with perimenopause, which can present itself in a wide array of symptoms. Berry asked about Dr. Biden’s “a-ha moment” when it came to this season of life — and many women are going to relate to what she had to say.
“Okay, so my a-ha moment was when my doctor and, well, some of you who were going through this a couple of years ago… they told all of us, ‘Everybody, get on hormone therapy because this is going to help you and it prevents breast cancer,'” Dr. Biden recalled. “So we all went on hormone therapy.” That’s when the medical community did an about-face on the benefits of hormone therapy, often called HRT (hormone replacement therapy) after a study over two decades ago revealed that there might be a link between breast cancer and HRT.
“And then like two years later, they’re like, ‘No, everybody get off hormone therapy because now it’s supposed to cause breast cancer,'” the First Lady continued. “So we were so confused, like should we stay on? Should we go off? What should we do? So I went to the doctor, my gynecologist, and I said, ‘Hey, what should I do?’ And she said, ‘Well, what would you like to do?’ And I said, ‘What do you mean what would I like to do? You’re the doctor.’ And so anyway, that was my a-ha moment because, you know, she had no answers.”
The lack of information from the medical community — and Berry’s herpes misdiagnosis during perimenopause is a great example — proves why more research needs to be done. That’s why the First Lady pushed her husband into signing an executive order that “put into the budget $12 billion for research” and advancing women’s health.
That was music to Berry’s ears who was eager to see the “changing culture” around this hot topic. “We have to start being fearless in our pursuit to talk about this issue. And not feel sort of defined by it or shamed by it or feel less than,” the Oscar winner stated. “We have to realize it’s a rite of passage, like puberty and pregnancy. This is a glorious time in life.”