'I mistook my symptoms of perimenopause for early-onset dementia'
Watch: Mum mistook her perimenopausal symptoms for early-onset dementia
A mum has revealed how she worried she was experiencing early-onset dementia after mistaking her perimenopausal symptoms for the condition.
Danielle Hobson, 36, an intuitive business coach, from Doncaster, South Yorkshire, initially started experiencing anxiety for "weird and random" things two years ago.
The mum-of-two also started getting night sweats, week long episodes of insomnia, heart palpitations and extreme aches and pains sporadically.
But it was when she started forgetting the names of her friends, what she’d had for breakfast and what she was saying mid-sentence that she really started considering whether she could have signs of early onset dementia.
“I used to remember absolutely everything," she explains of the symptoms. "Then all of a sudden I was forgetting names of people I’d known for years and it didn’t feel like brain fog.
“It was complete and utter mind blank, like there was nothing in my brain. It really started to worry me as I run a successful online business."
As well as forgetfulness, Hobson says she also suffered form aches and pains that made her feel "like an 86-year-old woman, not a 36-year-old mum".
The turning point came when her mind went blank during a work meeting.
“I was on a networking call and I couldn’t remember what I had for breakfast," she explains. "My colleague told me she gets it all the time because she’s perimenopausal.
“The second she said it it was like everything made sense. Instantly the symptoms I'd been experiencing made sense.
After doing some online research Hobson went to go and see her GP in February 2023 but was told she was "too young" to be perimenopausal.
“I booked to see my GP and he asked me if I wanted some antidepressants," she explains. "He said I was too young to be perimenopausal.
“He gave me a blood test but it didn’t show any abnormalities. I felt like I was banging my head against a brick wall.”
Hobson decided to look into different treatments instead and spent between £150 to £200 a month over the course of a year trying to treat her symptoms holistically.
“After not being referred to a specialist, I took things into my own hands," she explains.
"I bought a load of supplements online, started Reiki therapy. Fortunately for me I am in a position where I can afford that, a lot of women can’t.
"But there are also free resources for women online. I started working on my symptoms with my business partner, Jess, who is a holistic health coach at VidaFemme."
Hobson decided to pay for a private blood test to get further answers and looked into specific hormones, such as testosterone and oestrogen in-depth.
"I was told by doctors that I had premature ovarian failure, as I was too young for perimenopause," she continues.
"This diagnosis felt really scary and without an abnormal blood result I couldn’t be referred to a specialist.
“I was exhausted and I felt so frustrated. I had insomnia too and I couldn’t think straight. I started to wonder if I would ever get the right help to change how I feel?”
In December 2023, Hobson woke up by extreme pain in her ovaries and her husband took her to the hospital.
She was diagnosed with a five centimetre ovarian cyst, which doctors said could be a symptom of her hormones changing.
In February 2024 she saw a specialist who formally diagnosed her with perimenopause and prescribed HRT.
“Finally I was given HRT," she says. "Nothing changed for the first six weeks. Between six to eight weeks I felt worse than ever, those two weeks were really hard but I stuck with it.
“Then one day I woke up one and I felt like me again. I felt like myself before the symptoms.
“I’ve now been on it [HRT] for three months and touch wood, I feel great. My energy levels are high and I've just completed the couch to 5K.
"I’m also running two businesses,” she adds.
Hobson is documenting her perimenopause and HRT journey on TikTok and wants to help other women who are struggling to be heard by their doctors.
“Women in their 30s are now having these symptoms," she explains. "There can’t be a blanket approach to perimenopause anymore, it is changing.
"My daughter is thirteen and she knows all about my symptoms, it is not a taboo subject in our house," she adds.
Additional reporting SWNS.
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