From WisPolitics.com/WisBusiness.com …
— Oscar Award-winning actress Halle Berry today shared her own story of how difficult it is to get information about menopause as she spoke in support of a state bill to create information materials on the subject.
“So at 54 I woke up one morning, and I have to say this, I was having an issue with my vagina,” she said during a virtual news conference alongside Democratic lawmakers. “I felt pain down there like I had never felt before. It was excruciating.”
Berry said she went through confusion with her boyfriend after her OBGYN said she had herpes, and another misdiagnosis of Sjögren’s syndrome before figuring out her symptoms were from menopause. She said she had to do her own research before going to her “trusted eye doctor” about having blurry vision and crusty eyes.
She had to prod her eye doctor before he finally told her she was going through menopause. He told her his patients “don’t want to hear they’re in menopause.”
“Well, why is that? Why are we so afraid of menopause? Because we have zero education around it,” Berry said. “It’s stigmatized. We’re afraid because we’re ignorant to what is happening to our bodies. That’s why education is so important, and that’s why I’m here.”
Education on menopause would have saved her four years of self-exploration and self-diagnosis, she said.
SB 356 would require the Department of Health Services to work with health care providers, OBGYNs and clinics to educate women on symptoms, processes, and other issues surrounding perimenopause and menopause to better prepare them for the future.
The bill is also up for public comment in the Senate Health Committee tomorrow.
Watch the news conference here.
— A year out from becoming the 1,000th lung transplant recipient at UW Health, Navy veteran David Peabody says he’s enjoying his renewed life.
Peabody, who served in the Navy as an antisubmarine warfare technician, first became sick in 2010 with chronic obstructive pulmonary disease, and by 2013 he had to stop working as a mail carrier for the U.S. Postal Service. In 2019, his doctor at the Veterans Administration hospital in Louisville, Kentucky, put him on oxygen and suggested a lung transplant.
“It scared me,” Peabody said, “I had to think about it, and it was a tough decision.”
But in 2023, Peabody was referred to UW Health and the William S. Middleton Memorial Veterans Hospital in Wisconsin, one of three VA hospitals in the nation that performs lung transplants, for evaluation. He ended up moving to Madison and being placed on a transplant waitlist.
“It was a big commitment to move up here,” he said. “We had to leave our two teenagers in Kentucky, but I knew, without the transplant, I may not be here for them much longer.”
After roughly a year of waiting in Madison due to transplant viability and other health complications, Peabody underwent surgery on Oct. 13 last year. The successful procedure marked the 1,000th lung transplant by UW Health since they first began in 1989.
Peabody was eager to recover from the surgery and get back to his family.
“Everyone at both hospitals was just so friendly and staying on top of what was going on,” he said. “They said that the more you walked, the quicker you would get out of there, so I was walking about five miles a day.”
UW Health transplant surgeon Dr. James Maloney led the team that performed the surgery at University Hospital. Dr. Dixon Kaufman, director of the UW Health Transplant Center and professor of surgery at the UW School of Medicine and Public Health, praised Peabody’s recovery.
“David’s case is a great example of how well patients can do following a lung transplant, and it’s incredibly rewarding to see someone regain their independence and quality of life,” he said. “As we look ahead to the next 1,000, our focus remains on delivering world-class care to every patient who comes through our doors.”
Peabody turned 66 in August and enjoys nightly walks with his wife.
“If it wasn’t for their sacrifice, I don’t know what would have happened,” he said. “I want my donor’s family to know this means so much to me and to my family.”
See the release.
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