Podcast Summary: DealBook Summit — Halle Berry’s Perimenopause Path

Host: The New York Times (Andrew Ross Sorkin)
Guest/Speaker: Halle Berry
Date: December 4, 2025
Event: Live from the 2025 DealBook Summit, New York City

Main Theme

This episode centers on Halle Berry’s candid, powerful keynote about aging, invisibility, and the urgent need for better awareness and care surrounding perimenopause and menopause. Speaking from both personal and societal perspectives, Berry weaves personal stories, social critique, and activism, calling for a cultural shift in how women’s midlife and health are treated—both in Hollywood and across broader society.

Key Discussion Points and Insights

1. The Invisibility of Aging Women

• Cultural Pressure: Berry begins by highlighting intense societal pressure for women—especially in Hollywood—to remain “forever 35,” and the devaluation that happens as women age.
• Quote: “Our culture thinks that at 59 years old, I am past my prime and that women my age start to become invisible. In Hollywood, in the workplace, on social media, women are pressured to stay forever. 35.” (00:26, 05:23)
• Insight: Aging women’s accomplishments and wisdom should be celebrated, not overlooked.

2. Personal Resilience and Storytelling

• Berry’s Childhood: Halle shares a searing account from her youth, when she was bullied and beaten by a group at school. Instead of becoming a victim, she resolved to “never, ever” let it happen again—channeling adversity into ambition.
• Quote: “As I was walking home, I said, no. I am never, ever, never. I’m never going to allow this to happen to me again… That’s why I’ve been divorced four times.” (08:05, 08:49 — laughter from the audience)
• Transformation: She shifted to outworking, out-thinking her bullies, taking on leadership roles and becoming her school’s first Black prom queen.
  • “My childhood was proof that when you stand up and you fight for yourself, you can change everything.” (09:25)

3. The Perimenopause Wake-Up Call

• Taboo and Misdiagnosis: At age 54, Berry suddenly found herself experiencing severe perimenopausal symptoms—insomnia, rage, memory issues—and even had sex become “like razor blades inside my vagina,” misdiagnosed as herpes.
• Quote: “If I and my doctors had such little information and had no answers at all about what was happen[ing] to my body, I was sure that there were other women out there wandering through this same darkness. Without a roadmap.” (10:56)
• Gender Double Standard:
  • “Can you imagine if men had a medical condition that disrupted their sleep, brain function and sex life? We’d be calling that a health crisis on par with COVID and the whole world would shut down until they figured this shit out.” (11:44)

4. Activism and Solutions: Building Respin Health

• Berry’s Response: In the absence of support, she founded Respin Health, a company providing access to menopause experts, science-backed solutions, and information for women in midlife.
  • “Respin is where women learn to advocate for their health from a place of knowledge, strength and power.” (12:31)
• Policy Work: She is actively pursuing policy changes—both federally (promoting a $275M research bill) and at the state level (supporting menopause care legislation).
• Notable Win and Loss:
  • Illinois: “Illinois just became the first state to mandate coverage for hrt, which is hormone replacement therapy.” (13:15)
  • California: “My very own governor Gavin Newsom has vetoed our menopause bill not one, but two years in a row. But that’s okay, because he’s not going to be governor forever… he probably should not be our next president either. Just saying.” (13:28 – 13:44, pointed critique)

5. Call for Cultural and Workplace Change

• Impact on All: Perimenopause and menopause are not just women’s issues—they affect families, workplaces, economies.
  • “One in six women leave the workplace due to their menopausal symptoms. So it affects everybody.” (14:49)
• Men as Allies: Berry strongly advocates for men to be part of the conversation.
  • “When men understand what women are going through, women feel less alone and more supported. And when women rise, we all rise.” (15:06)
• Action Challenge:
  • “Ask your wife, ask your sister, ask your mother, ask a colleague... how she’s really feeling... and watch what happens. She is going to light up like that Christmas tree in Rockefeller Center. I promise you that. Why? Because she will feel seen.” (15:57)

6. Empowerment and Zero Apologies

• Metaphor of “The Bus” and “The Gutter”: Berry closes on reclaiming dignity and refusing to accept mistreatment or invisibility.
  • “Today I am proudly on a new bus. Respin is my new way to fight. And the attitudes about menopause, the way women are treated in midlife, well, that’s the new gutter. And I’ll be damned if I’m going to allow myself or any other woman to be kicked back into another gutter.” (16:09)
• Final Rallying Cry:
  • “At this stage of my life, I have zero fucks left to give. And I am going to fight like hell because my longevity depends on it. The longevity of my daughter depends on it. The longevity of women everywhere depend on it.” (17:02–17:14)

Memorable Quotes & Moments (With Timestamps)

• On cultural expectations and worth:
  • “We’re encouraged to contort our bodies and our faces in truly extreme ways, to chase this elusive fountain of youth. And sadly, I have to admit, I too, feel this pressure every single day.” (05:53)
• On gender and the stakes of menopause care:
  • “You know you guys got that blue pill when you needed it. Real quick, just saying.” (11:53, humorous applause)
• On advocacy and intergenerational change:
  • “Be bold, be loud. Ladies. Refuse to be diminished during one of the most important seasons of your life. The days of outliving men. But doing it in poor health are over. Why? Because we simply deserve better. We are half the population.” (16:47)
• On fighting for others:
  • “This time, this fight isn’t gonna be just your fight. You’re not fighting that six foot taller all by yourself anymore. You are gonna be doing the fight of your life because you are going to be fighting for millions of other women.” (12:07)

Segment Highlights & Timestamps

| Timestamp | Segment Topic | |------------|------------------------------------------------------------| | 00:26 | Societal pressures & invisibility for aging women | | 06:08–08:49| Childhood bullying story & formative resilience | | 09:25 | From victimhood to leadership as a personal philosophy | | 10:01–11:44| Perimenopause journey, isolation, and misdiagnosis | | 12:18 | Founding Respin, personal activism, and legislative push | | 14:49 | Impact on economy and workplace, importance of male allies | | 15:57 | Direct social challenge to listeners | | 16:09 | Empowerment: “new bus” metaphor and call to action | | 17:04 | Conclusion: “zero fucks left to give,” legacy for women |

Tone and Style

Berry’s delivery is raw, self-deprecating, humorous at moments, and consistently forceful. The talk is both intimate (sharing vulnerable details of personal trauma) and uncompromising in its social critique—culminating in a take-no-prisoners declaration for change.

For Listeners New to the Episode

This episode offers an unflinching look at what aging and menopause mean for women today—from the perspective of a Hollywood icon willing to share her raw truth. It’s an impassioned call to end the silence, advocate for better care and policy, and include everyone—especially men—in the conversation. For anyone grappling with midlife, or seeking to support women in their lives, Halle Berry’s message is urgent, necessary, and impossible to ignore.