By playing, you agree to uListen's Terms and Privacy Policy and YouTube's Terms of Service.
What Now? With Trevor NoahThe Second Coming of Halle Berry | What Now? with Trevor Noah Podcast
Summaries, chapters, transcripts, and FAQs on this page are made by uListen, not YouTube.
Great conversations run long. Their best ideas don't have to.
uListen is free on iPhone, iPad, Android, Chrome, and Claude.
See howAt a glance
WHAT IT’S REALLY ABOUT
Halle Berry Turns Perimenopause Ordeal Into Advocacy for Midlife Women
- Halle Berry recounts waking up in severe pain after intimacy, being wrongly told it was herpes, and later learning through her own research that it was vaginal atrophy tied to perimenopause.
- She says medical education and research have failed women, citing that women were only included in clinical studies in 1993, that only 13% of doctors understand the menopausal body, and that menopause gets one chapter in medical school.
- Berry describes Respin as a community and health platform with products such as an intimacy gel and the vFit device, and says she is lobbying in Washington for a $265 million menopause research bill.
- She argues that shame around menopause comes from pressure on women to stay forever young, and that her lifelong experience of being reduced to her looks and of being a Black woman made her fearless about speaking out.
- Berry credits her fifth-grade teacher Yvonne Sim for her sense of worth and frames her advocacy as a purpose she was chosen for, much like her historic Oscar win.
IDEAS WORTH REMEMBERING
5 ideasDoctors are largely unprepared to recognize perimenopause.
Berry says her doctor misread her symptom as herpes and none of her six doctors raised perimenopause at 54, which she attributes to systemic gaps rather than individual fault.
Menopause affects the whole body, not just reproductive health.
Berry says losing estrogen affects the brain, heart, liver, skin, bones, hair, and mood, and she links it to risks like dementia, brittle bones, and heart disease.
Women should educate themselves and advocate for their care.
Berry urges women to research, question their doctors, and find a new or out-of-state doctor if theirs doesn't understand menopause.
HRT should be an informed personal choice.
Berry says she feared HRT until she educated herself, now plans to stay on it, and argues women deserve both hormonal and non-hormonal options, which is why she is pushing for more research funding.
Untreated menopause symptoms can quietly strain relationships.
Berry shares a friend's near-divorce that turned around once he and his wife discussed her perimenopause pain, which she says shows why men belong in the conversation.
WORDS WORTH SAVING
5 quotesIt is to be a voice for women in midlife. A time of life that we have s- been so forgotten and so, um, underserved and underappreciated.
— Halle Berry
I have been Black in this body, and a woman my whole career. What's harder than that?
— Halle Berry
The goal should not be to stay forever 30, the goal should be to age gracefully, have the confidence to be able to do that, knowing that our real value lies within, not externally.
— Halle Berry
We have to start taking this into our own hands, even these women in these rural states that don't have access to care. We have to lean in. We have to do our own education.
— Halle Berry
Things that you go through, you grow through.
— Halle Berry
Ask ChatGPT about this episode
Get its key ideas, plus a summary of each chapter linked to that point in the video, right in your chat.
Add uListen AI to ChatGPT.
Install uListen AI in ChatGPT (opens in a new tab)Needs a ChatGPT account.Paste this prompt into a new chat.
Use uListen AI to give me this episode's key ideas and a chapter-by-chapter summary, with timestamps: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hW7Mld_WksU
SPEAKERS
Trevor Noah
hostComedian and TV host, creator/host of the podcast "What Now? with Trevor Noah."
Christiana
hostCo-host on "What Now? with Trevor Noah."
Halle Berry
guestAcademy Award–winning actress and founder focused on midlife wellness and menopause advocacy.
High quality AI-generated summary created from speaker-labeled transcript.
