Halle Berry Gets Candid About Vaginal Dryness During Menopause and Partnering With Joylux (Exclusive)
'As women, we are waking up to ourselves and we're realizing that we deserve better,' Berry says
Key Takeaways
- Halle Berry says vaginal dryness was one of her first symptoms of perimenopause.
- The actress hopes speaking openly about menopause empowers more women.
- Berry says women deserve better research, education and healthcare options in midlife.
Halle Berry, 59, is all about breaking barriers, whether that’s in her career as an actress or when it comes to women’s healthcare. She also knows that women deserve to age as comfortably as men do, which is why the actress has partnered with Joylux, the women’s health platform and intimate wellness company. Together, Berry and Joylux are working to create non-invasive, hormone-free solutions for feminine care, menopause and sexual wellness.
Berry has been a proud partner of Joylux since 2024 in an effort to destigmatize the conversation around perimenopause and menopause. She has since become a leading voice for menopause awareness and women’s health advocacy, bringing visibility to conversations that have historically been overlooked. Now, the actress and advocate is supporting the launch of Joylux’s Juicy Like a Peach gel, which is an FDA-cleared vaginal dryness treatment that introduces proprietary HPMC-5 technology to women’s intimate health products in the U.S. for the first time.
Woman’s World got to chat with Berry about the new product, her partnership with Joylux and why she believes it’s time to start prioritizing women’s healthcare. Plus, the actress shared which of her famed roles she would love to bring back if she had the opportunity.
Woman's World Answers
Woman’s World: You’ve partnered with Joylux to help launch their new product, Juicy Like a Peach. Can you tell me about it and why it’s an important innovation for women’s intimate health?
Halle Berry: I really believe this is a game changer for women and our health and our vaginal health. I think this is something that women traditionally haven’t wanted to talk about, but all women will suffer in some way down their path of life with this issue of vaginal dryness. It’s a big part, for many women, of perimenopause and menopause, and this new product is revolutionary in the sense that this new technology has been discovered, the HPMC-5. It’s this molecule that helps create this moisture veil inside of the vagina, which over time makes your vagina juicy like a peach—that’s why it’s called that. It restores the moisture in your vagina so that you can take your intimacy back into your own hands and have the spontaneity you used to have.
To me, it’s a game changer because that’s one of the first things that, as a woman, when you can no longer feel that you’re a sexual being anymore, you start to lose confidence. Then you can get depressed, and then your relationships can fall apart and then there you are. My entry into perimenopause was vaginal dryness, and so partnering with Joylux just makes so much sense for me. This company has the vFit, which I first used, and then our first product, LET’S SPIN, our lubricant, and now this is our third product that’s just changed my life. I know that women are suffering and struggling, and I think Juicy Like a Peach will be exactly what they need. They should look at it just like their daily moisturizer we do on our face—this is the moisturizer for your vagina, and we have to start caring for that part of our body, just like we do every other part.
Woman’s World: As much as everyone wants to see innovation in women’s health, it can be scary or uncomfortable to try new things. How will Juicy Like a Peach fit into women’s midlife health routines, and why should they try it?
Halle Berry: What’s really good about Juicy is that, first of all, it’s FDA-approved. I think many women feel better when it’s been cleared and approved by the FDA. It is not hormonal, which is another plus for women who are feeling uncomfortable about hormones or who cannot take hormones. I think it’s very easy to use and it’s at a good price point [the full retail price is $59], so there’s no real reason that any woman should feel afraid to try this product. There’s absolutely zero downside, only something to gain, and I think every woman wants to feel juicy like a peach. That’s our sexual power, to be able and ready to have intimacy whenever we want. It’s going to give you that sense of having yourself back and your freedom back, which will also give your confidence back.
Woman’s World: There’s such a stigma around not just menopause, but every aspect of women’s health. Why do you feel like women should feel free to speak openly about their experiences, both with friends and medical professionals?
Halle Berry: I think as women we are waking up to ourselves and we’re realizing that we deserve better. We’re realizing that we’ve been operating on less than we deserved. As women, we’re often mothers or the caregivers and we’re sort of the last to be cared for. We think of ourselves last, and I think we’re starting to learn the “airplane theory”—when the mask comes down, take care of yourself first, then those around you—there’s a reason for that. We have to be our best selves so we can take care of our families, and I think we’re starting to realize and the younger generation is starting to realize that we matter as women. It’s okay to take care of ourselves, and I think by people talking about it, it’s helping other women talk about it.
Women have said to me in the last two or three years that I’ve been on this mission, ‘Thank you for talking about it, because it helps me talk about it. You’re talking about it with your partner, now I can talk about it with my husband. Thank you for setting that example.’ I think we’re realizing that nothing will change for us unless we start talking about it, unless we get loud, unless we demand that our doctors get retooled, that there’s more research and education in the space, so I’m excited.
Woman’s World: It’s so wonderful that you’ve taken such an interest in talking about it and sharing your experiences, because now other women know they’re not alone. And that’s part of what can be so scary, is that it feels like you’re alone in what you’re going through.
Halle Berry: I want younger women to know, too, that this time of life is nothing to be afraid of. You don’t have to dread aging because we’re turning into a culture that wants to stay forever 35 and it’s just not possible. Men get to age and become silver foxes and they get sexier and debonair, but women somehow have to stay 35 because that’s where men want us to be. Well, I say no. We have a right to age like they do. We have a right to age gracefully. We have a right to have all the tools and products that are going to make that comfortable for us. We have the same rights that they do. That’s what I know.
Woman’s World: 100%. It’s great for the younger generation to hear voices like yours to say that it’s not scary, and you don’t need to be afraid and to hear someone of your stature speak about this openly.
Halle Berry: You just need to be educated. You need to have knowledge, become curious, just like with any other phase of life. When you’re looking at becoming a mother, we research that within an inch of our life to understand what pregnancy is, what childbirth is and then the same thing with raising our children. Start thinking about midlife when you’re in your 30s and what’s going to happen when you’re in your 40s and 50s. Start thinking about what that phase will be and set yourself up for success.
Woman’s World: What pushed you to want to become a leading voice for menopause awareness and women’s health advocacy, and what has it been like to bring visibility to those conversations?
Halle Berry: When I found out that I was in perimenopause, I was 54 years old and nobody had talked to me about it. None of my doctors even brought it up and I thought what a tragic disservice that was to me because I had been in perimenopause probably 10 years. Had I known better, I would have done better. I would have started taking different supplements a lot sooner if I knew what was waiting for me on the other side. I wish I did. So, I thought, ‘How can I use my voice to help empower other women so that they can start making better choices for themselves?’ Because I didn’t get a chance to do that. I wanted other women to and I want my daughter to. I want a new world for her. I want her to understand her body and understand the choices that she has.
We should be able to sail into those years. Women don’t have to bottom out like I did and find themselves in the dredges of hell like I did, with [the feeling of] razor blades in my vagina and my mouth so dry I can’t even open it in the morning, or about to lose my eyesight because my eyes are drying up. Not every woman has to arrive at that place. Knowledge is power, and you can start attacking these issues that you know are coming well before they become sort of tragic. You can be on top of it, and that’s what I wish for women.
Woman’s World: What made you decide to partner with Joylux?
Halle Berry: They lead with science and the products are FDA-approved. That’s really important for us to feel safe. So much is being put in the market today and we don’t know what we’re putting in our bodies because some of these products don’t have to have trials. I don’t want to be a guinea pig, that’s just not what I want to do. I like that they lead with science, they lead with clinical trials and they had the first product that helped me when I realized that I was in perimenopause. I was on a new path that gave me confidence in the company, that they were who they said they were and that their products actually worked. Since I started using the vFit, we teamed up and we created two new products that really were to help me, but I knew that by helping myself, we’d be helping millions of other women.
Woman’s World: Switching it up to your career for a moment: You’ve been in some incredible films and played iconic characters, but if you could go back and reprise any of your past roles, which character would you want to bring back?
Halle Berry: Here’s the thing, this isn’t going to be a popular answer. People are gonna be like, ‘Are you crazy?’ But I would go back and do another version of Catwoman. I would do Catwoman 2.0 And I’ll tell you why. When the movie came out, it got unfairly panned. Was it the best movie you ever saw? No. Did Catwoman need a bigger foe to fight? Should the problem have been more significant than women’s faces cracking? Yes. So, it wasn’t perfect, but the younger generations have found this movie, and they love it. They get what we were trying to do. At the time, a woman had not had her own superhero movie, so it was trying to be a leader, trying to innovate and make a way out of no way. I wish I could go back and have a better story, a better writer, a different director and tell another version of that story, because for better or for worse, the young generation loves that movie. I would love to go back—I never will, but if I could—I would love to go back and do that.
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