Oscar-winning actor Halle Berry shocked fans this week with a far-fetched medical story about how her doctor misdiagnosed her perimenopause.

Instead of pinpointing the 57-year-old woman’s hormonal changes, the doctor said her problem was “the worst herpes symptoms I’ve ever seen.”

It wasn’t until much later, after multiple tests for sexually transmitted infections came back negative, that the doctor’s mistake was discovered. Berry is not alone in her experience of doctors failing to spot the physical changes that occur to about 1 million Americans each year.

Research shows that nearly one in three women between the ages of 45 and 54 have their menopausal symptoms misdiagnosed by their doctors.

And herpes, a sexually transmitted virus, is just one of a catalog of diseases that women have been falsely told they have.

From Alzheimer’s disease to heart disease, here’s a look at all the serious health problems that menopause symptoms can mimic…

Halle Berry opens up to First Lady Jill Biden about her experience being misdiagnosed with menopause

sexually transmitted diseases

Berry initially sought help from her doctor because dryness during sex was causing severe vaginal pain. She was told that her symptoms were caused by herpes.

However, she discovered that the same symptoms are also common during menopause.

During menopause, decreased estrogen makes vaginal tissue thinner, drier, and more prone to inflammation, a condition known as atrophic vaginitis.

This can make sex painful or cause bumps or cuts in the tissue, which can appear to be another problem, such as an infection.

According to Johns Hopkins University, many sexually transmitted infections, such as herpes, gonorrhea, and chlamydia, can cause vaginal inflammation and pain during sex.

Heart disease

Oprah Winfrey’s early menopause system was misdiagnosed as heart disease

Approximately 54% of menopausal women report experiencing heart palpitations around the time their menopausal symptoms begin.

According to the British charity British Heart Foundation, estrogen, which rapidly declines during menopause, has many functions that protect the cardiovascular system. This includes regulating cholesterol levels, reducing fat buildup in the arteries, and regulating blood pressure.

Therefore, when estrogen levels begin to decline, such as during perimenopause, women may begin to see changes in heart function.

Talk show host and actress Oprah Winfrey revealed on “Wellness Checkup with Dr. David Agus” that when she started experiencing heart palpitations in her early 40s, her doctor prescribed medication and inserted a catheter into her heart. He revealed.

“At one point, a female doctor first gave me an angiogram and prescribed heart medication, but she never mentioned that this could be menopause or perimenopause. ” she said.

She saw five different doctors until she learned that her symptoms were caused by hormonal changes caused by perimenopause.

dementia

One of the more confusing symptoms that many women suffer from during menopause is brain fog.

Neuropsychologist Dr. Jessica Caldwell told Prevention magazine that this happens because the brain has estrogen receptors, which play an important role in memory and speech.

So when estrogen production decreases, the brain becomes starved of the hormone and has to adjust. “The brain figures out how to work without having to take in as much estrogen as before,” Caldwell said.

Perimenopausal women may have more difficulty concentrating, multitasking and recalling memories, according to Dementia UK.

This is similar to some of the symptoms seen in people with dementia, a collective term for neurodegenerative diseases such as Alzheimer’s disease.

“Some patients were misdiagnosed with dementia or Alzheimer’s disease when in fact they had menopausal brain fog,” Dr. Gayatri Devi, a professor of neurology at the State University of New York Downstate Medical Center, told Prevention. .

depression

Some doctors say that prescribing alternatives to hormone therapy can be more effective in treating some menopausal symptoms than other interventions, such as antidepressants.

The hormonal changes brought about by menopause include changes in sleep quality, anxiety, appetite changes, fatigue, and mood disorders, which check almost all the boxes for depression symptoms.

Experts have previously highlighted that antidepressant use among women is highest among menopausal women, with 44.3 percent of all women taking antidepressants in the United States being over the age of 40.

“We often say, oh, it must be just depression. All of these symptoms can be related to anxiety and depression,” says obstetrician-gynecologist Jennifer Rowlands, M.D. said on TikTok.

irritable bowel syndrome

Some menopausal people are misdiagnosed with IBS.

This condition is very common and includes cramps, constipation, diarrhea, gas, and bloating. According to menopause charities, many women experience these changes when menopause begins.

Studies have shown that when estrogen and progesterone levels drop, people experience more severe bloating, abdominal pain, and changes in bowel patterns.

Therefore, researchers at the University of Washington believe that many women who begin menopause may experience symptoms similar to IBS.

fibromyalgia

According to the Menopause Charity, fibromyalgia syndrome is a chronic condition that causes general body pain, fatigue, sleep disturbances, brain fog and irritable bowel syndrome.

Because there is no blood test or formal diagnosis for fibromyalgia, many doctors hear about the condition, which also occurs in menopausal people, and rush to diagnose it, says Deborah, a general practitioner who specializes in menopause. Dr. Brandt writes on his website.

Hill Wimp, one of the users on the forum MenopositionMatters, shared that for over five years, perimenopause was misdiagnosed as fibromyalgia.

“My symptoms began as revenge for having seen an unhelpful GP. For a year I suffered from brain fog, 18 hours of sleep a day, incredible joint pain and muscle pain. After I continued to complain of pain and irregular periods, they diagnosed me with fibrosis and chronic fatigue associated with stress,” she said. she wrote.