Oscar-winning actor and women’s health activist Halle Berry joined female senators as they introduced federal legislation to boost federal research on menopause in May 2024. J. Scott Applewhite/Associated Press, file

Award-winning actress Halle Berry testified before the Maine Legislature’s Health and Human Services Committee Friday in support of a bill to expand education on menopause and perimenopause.

The Hollywood icon described her own experience with menopause: a barrage of misunderstood symptoms and misdiagnoses.

“I’m in menopause, and I had no idea,” Berry, 58, told the committee through a Zoom video feed. “None of my doctors ever talked to me about it.”

The bill, LD 1079, would direct the state Department of Health and Human Services to develop educational materials “in electronic and physical form” about perimenopause and menopause, working in partnership with local health care providers, including gynecologists and community-based programs.

Those materials would include details about symptoms, treatments and the underlying biological processes, as well as advice on how to discuss menopause with family and friends, according to the draft. The bill’s fiscal note is $10,000, said sponsor Kristen Cloutier, D-Lewiston.

No one testified against the bill Friday.

Berry said she experienced brain fog, heart palpitations and dryness in her eyes and vagina, but her health care professionals “kind of gaslit me” about the cause. Doctors suggested herpes and Sjogren’s syndrome — neither of which was the case, she said.

One doctor, when confronted with the suggestion of menopause, appeared sheepish, “like he could hardly say the word,” she said.

“Women deserve the support. We deserve to live good, quality lives and get the treatment so that we can do that,” Berry said.

Cloutier offered the first testimony Friday, speaking in the Burton M. Cross Building in Augusta a few minutes earlier.

“Menopause is a universal experience for all who menstruate, yet education surrounding this critical health transition remains severely limited,” Cloutier said. “The reality of this transition period, however, is that there can be serious health consequences.”

Cloutier said many individuals, including her, end up feeling blindsided by symptoms they were not prepared for or were unsure how to address with a health care provider.

“Everyone deserves to understand the changes that their bodies will experience,” she said.

Senate President Mattie Daughtry, D-Brunswick, followed Cloutier’s testimony, arguing that poor access to information can lead people experiencing menopause and perimenopause to misunderstand their own health. She cited a study that found roughly 80% of women felt unprepared for menopause.

“Outside of some jokes about hot flashes and mood swings, most of us know next to nothing about this chapter in our life,” said Daughtry, who cosponsored the bill.

She added that there be “at least be an acknowledgement” of menopause in high school health classes to better prepare young people for their futures.