How Halle Berry Ended Up Explaining Menopause to Mike Tyson

Halle Berry had a knockout conversation about menopause with Mike Tyson. 

It’s true, when the former heavyweight champion and his wife, Lakiha Spicer ran into Halle backstage at Jimmy Kimmel Live, and Mike was treated to Halle talking about the topic, which has become important to her in recent years.

“Can you imagine Mike Tyson saying, ‘Vagina?’” Halle quipped to Jimmy Kimmel who asked if the trio were really discussing menopause during her Sept. 25 appearance on the late-night show. “We were. That’s the beauty of what’s happening right now. We got into a talk with his wife KiKi, and I told her ‘I got you, don’t worry when the time comes, I’m going to know everything about this topic.’”

The Oscar-winning actress admitted she was the first to bring up menopause—which is the time a woman’s period ends and her ability to reproduce stops—while talking to Kiki and that Mike needed a little bit of clarity.

“He was like, ‘What is this menopause?’” Halle explained. “And we started talking about it and he was like, “Well it doesn’t affect your sex, does it? ‘And I was like, ‘Well it can.’”

Halle assured Mike and Kiki, however, that their time in the bedroom doesn’t have to be affected by the change. As she noted, “If you get things early that you need—your education, your information—you can stay juicy like a peach.”

The Union star also explained that because she didn’t have the proper tools when it started happening to her, she is not afraid to share her expertise with anyone on the inevitable changes women’s bodies will go through. 

“I didn’t have help,” she told Jimmy. “I’m 58 and nobody helped me. So I want to be the voice of the future for these women and help them get the information that they need before it hits them, and they think that they are crazy.”

And this isn’t the first time the Academy Award winner had gotten candid about this stage of a woman’s life. In March, Halle reflected on finding out she was in the early stages of menopause after she went to the doctor and shared she was in a lot of pain while having sex with her boyfriend, Van Hunt.

This caused her doctor to mistake her symptoms for the "worst case of herpes"—a common infection that produces blisters and ulcers.

"I realized after the fact that is a symptom of perimenopause," Halle revealed during the (extra space)A Day Of Unreasonable Conversation Summit March 25 with First Lady Dr. Jill Biden. "My doctor had no knowledge and didn't prepare me."

After that moment, Halle revealed that she made it her mission to use her platform to educate and inform both women and men in an attempt to change the stigma around the “dirty little word.”

"And we in this room have to change that,” she added at the summit. “It can't just be the doom and gloom story. This is a glorious time of life."