WASHINGTON – Academy Award-winning actress Halle Berry joined a group of United States senators on May 2 to announce new legislation that would provide tens of millions of dollars towards menopause research and education.

“The shame has to be taken out of menopause. We have to talk about this very normal part of our life,” said the 57-year-old Hollywood star, who picked up a Best Actress Oscar for the 2001 romantic drama Monster’s Ball.

The Bill, Advancing Menopause Care and Mid-Life Women’s Health Act, is sponsored by senators from both parties and would divert US$275 million (S$372 million) to research, raising awareness and training healthcare professionals to deal with the hormone shift that women go through, mainly in middle age.

“Menopause is not a bad word. It’s not something to be ashamed of,” Ms Patty Murray, a Democrat from Washington State, told reporters at the news conference outside the US Capitol.

“And it is not something Congress or the federal government should ignore.”

The measure has no clear path yet to US President Joe Biden’s desk, but Ms Murray and her colleagues told reporters the aim was to get as many co-sponsors as possible before asking that it be put to a vote in the Senate.

Berry, the first woman of colour and still the only black woman to win a Best Actress Oscar, has been vocal about her experiences with menopause and said the issue needed to be “destigmatised”.

The American actress – whose films include the X-Men series (2000 to 2014), the James Bond movie Die Another Day (2002) and the mercilessly mocked Catwoman (2004) – told reporters her doctor refused to use the word “menopause” in front of her.

“I finally realised he wasn’t going to say it,” Berry told reporters. “So, I thought, ‘Okay, I’m going to have to do what no man can do. I have to say it. I said, ‘I’m in menopause.’” AFP