Halle Berry is joining a group of bipartisan senators to push for legislation that would put $275 million toward research and education around menopause, the significant hormone shift women go through in middle age.
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00:00 One, two, three, four.
00:03 Thank you.
00:05 I can't think of a topic that should not be politicized.
00:09 I can't think of an issue that's more of a human rights
00:12 issue than anything.
00:14 So to have support from both sides of the aisle
00:16 is really important for all women.
00:17 I said, I'm in menopause!
00:20 OK?
00:21 And that's why I'm having this issue!
00:23 And he said, oh my god, I could never say that to you.
00:25 Look at you.
00:26 You don't look like you're in menopause.
00:27 I could never say that.
00:28 And if I said that to all of my female clients,
00:30 they'd punch me.
00:32 And again, I knew that is why I'm here doing this work.
00:35 Because it has to be de-stigmatized.
00:37 The shame has to be taken out of menopause.
00:40 We have to talk about this very normal part of our life
00:43 that happens.
00:44 Our doctors can't even say the word to us,
00:47 let alone walk us through the journey of what
00:50 our menopausal years look like or look like,
00:52 or our years after that.
00:54 That's why I'm here.
00:54 I'm here as a citizen of the United States,
00:57 as a woman who is demanding that our government give us
01:02 what we need, because we deserve it.
01:03 We have been overlooked.
01:05 We have been discarded for far too long.
01:09 And I'm so grateful to have a team
01:10 of powerful, strong, smart women who are saying,
01:15 enough is enough.
01:16 Because guess what?
01:18 It's enough!
01:19 Why is it so stigmatized?
01:21 The bottom line is, for too long,
01:23 menopause has been overlooked, under-invested in,
01:28 and left behind.
01:29 It is well past time to stop treating menopause
01:33 like some kind of secret and start
01:36 treating it like the major, mainstream public health issue
01:40 it is.
01:40 Menopause is not a bad word.
01:42 It's not something to be ashamed of.
01:45 And it is not something Congress or the federal government
01:48 should ignore.
01:49 Why haven't we focused more on menopause?
01:53 Why has it become this issue that seems to be a little taboo?
02:01 Now, I would just suggest one little thought,
02:05 that if men went through menopause,
02:07 we would have adequately and appropriately funded
02:10 the research to menopause decades and decades ago.
02:13 So there's no time like the present
02:16 to get moving, to get forward on it.