Sex is supposed to be a pleasurable experience rather than painful, so Halle Berry knew she had to do something when intercourse began to feel like 'razor blades' for her.
Little did the actress know, looking for a solution to her intimate problem would lead to her injecting new life into her wellness company, Respin, and launching her own lubricant.
Funny how life works, isn't it?
Advert
Although she now hopes to help women across the globe who are going through a similar experience, Berry faced quite the battle when it came to finding out why sex had become so excruciating for her.
The Catwoman star, 58, has now spoken out about her health journey and how it impacted her relationship with her boyfriend of more than four years, singer and music producer Van Hunt.
During a recent appearance on The Drew Barrymore Show, the mother-of-two explained that her problem in the bedroom first cropped up when it was still early days between her and Hunt.
Advert
"When I was 54, I had just met Van," Berry said. "I manifested this man, and we were having the best time. I finally met my person. It was amazing. It really, truly was amazing.
"One morning, I tried to go to the bathroom. I couldn’t go. It was so painful when I tried to let a little bit out, I couldn’t go. I had to squeeze it.
"It took me almost 10 minutes to just empty my bladder because it was so painful. Substances were down there that I had never seen before and I thought, 'What is this?'"
Berry went to get checked out by her doctor, who left her stunned when he informed her that she appeared to have a 'really bad case of herpes'.
Advert
Recalling her experience, the X-Men actress explained that her vagina had become 'so swollen' that she wasn't capable of driving, so Hunt had chauffeured her to the appointment.
"We spent the next 72 hours doing the blame game, trying to figure out who gave it to me, who gave it to him," Berry told Barrymore. "And then a couple of hours after that, my doctor called me and said: 'You do not have herpes'.
"I was like, 'Okay then, what is it?' And this was the defining moment for me, he said, 'I don’t know, that’s what it looked like'."
Advert
The misdiagnosis and her doctor's lapse in knowledge encouraged Berry to head on her own 'reconnaissance' and research mission.
This led her to finding out about dry vagina syndrome, which is one of the many symptoms of menopause.
It turns out that Berry was in perimenopause, which refers to the time during which a woman's body makes the transition to menopause.
She said: "I had all the symptoms of what that felt like and I realised, 'Oh, I'm 54 years old.' I learned that perimenopause can start in your late 30s even and early 40s."
Advert
Common symptoms include changes in mood, changes in sex drive, difficulty concentrating, headaches, night sweats, hot flushes, PMS-like symptoms and having to urinate often, according to John Hopkins Medicine.
As we mentioned, Berry revealed that having sex with Hunt became extremely painful due to the vaginal dryness she was experiencing.
"I did have about six months or seven months [where] we struggled with finding a way to have sex again, getting rid of the dryness, making it more enjoyable because it got pretty rough for a minute," she went on.
Barrymore then interjected to say: "If I may give a description, it feels like sandpaper," to which Berry responded: "Razor blades."
So, she decided to create her own lubricant as part of her wellness brand Respin - which is a word which means 'to spin again or anew' - that promises to provide 'unparalleled hydration, comfort and pleasure' for people in a similar position.
Berry urged other women who might feel uncomfortable discussing this intimate issue with their partner to open up about it, insisting that 'conversation is key'.
"Men have to also understand what's going on," she said. "We as women have to have the courage to talk to our partners about it and what I have found is that most men want to be supportive, they really do, but it takes us to be brave enough to invite them into the conversation."
And hey, her and Hunt are still going strong - so she must be on to something.
Topics: Sex and Relationships, Celebrity, Health
Olivia Burke