Halle Berry is getting candid about life in her 50s.

The 56-year-old actress recently sat down with Women’s Health editor-in-chief Liz Plosser to discuss what it really means to own your age and sexuality.

During the conversation, she spoke about destigmatizing women’s health issues, and owning her sexuality through menopause.

Here’s what she had to say…

Keep reading to find out more…

On destigmatizing discussion of women’s health issues:

“We can make talking about women’s health issues less taboo by daring to talk about it… If you start the conversation, most women will follow. Do you know why? Because it’s something that we’re dying to do. It’s something that we’ve been deprived of, and it’s something that we want to share with one another. We just need the permission to do it.”

On owning her sexuality while going through menopause:

“The most important thing about owning your sexuality as a woman is accepting the station you’re at—and embracing that. And I say that because I’m smack dab in the middle of menopause. And I am challenging everything I thought I knew about menopause. Things like: ‘Your life is over.’ ‘You are disposable.’ ‘Society no longer has a place for you.’ ‘You should retire.’ ‘You should pack it up.’ I’m challenging all those stereotypes about how you have to look a certain way or feel a certain way. I’m my best self now that I reached 56 years old. I have the most to offer. I have zero blanks to give anymore. I’m solidly in my womanhood. I finally realize what I have to say is valuable, even if no one else agrees.”

On being her best self:

“I finally realize what I have to say is valuable, even if no one else agrees.”

On the expectations placed on women to have children:

“If you’re in your mid-thirties, don’t be bogged down by the idea that you have to have children by a certain age. You decide. And if you want to have children, you don’t have to be defined by those old ideologies that this is what women ‘have’ to do. Do it only if you want to, because you give up a lot of your personal life to growing those other lives. And maybe you’re not a woman who wants to do that. No harm, no foul, no judgment.”

On the importance of a female POV in filmmaking:

“Today, I challenge every script. I ask, ‘What’s the female point of view?’ Because so many of these scripts today are still written by men. Men are writing roles for women. They’re writing roles for characters that they do not understand. If you don’t know what the female POV is because you’re a man, then open your mind, expand your reality, and hear my point of view. And take that into consideration.”

On the benefits of working out:

“When we’re working out, it’s not for a look. It’s for a feeling, right? It’s for a health benefit. And by feeling good and having those health benefits, the byproduct is okay, you also look good. But looking good is never the motivation. It’s always about a feeling and about a health benefit.”

Halle Berry plays by her own rules, as evidenced by the hot new photo she just shared of herself.