The Catwoman star has become a leading advocate for menopausal women, and previously shared that she was misdiagnosed with herpes when the menopause symptoms began to kick in.
“I was probably 10 years into it and had no clue. I thought I was going crazy,” she told Glamour. “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,” she continued. “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?”
Halle added that she experienced constant feelings of anger and was no longer “the chill one”.
“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,” she said.
“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.”
Halle visited the US Capitol in 2024 to advocate for increased funding for research into menopause, and encouraged people to talk about their experiences.
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