Mum who ‘thought colleagues were speaking a foreign language’ diagnosed with a brain tumour and blames common drug
A MUM who thought her colleagues had started speaking a different language in a work meeting was diagnosed with a brain tumour.
Lucy Woodhouse, 43, says she experienced severe headaches which felt like hangovers and struggled to read aloud.
But then in a meeting with colleagues the nurse found herself unable to understand what they were saying.
Tests revealed she had a golf ball-sized tumour in her brain.
Lucy says she believes her meningioma tumour is linked to the contraceptive injections, rounds of IVF and HRT medication she took – all of which contain the hormone progesterone.
She says she had the Depo-Provera contraceptive injection multiple times in 1997, and in 2013 underwent three rounds of IVF over two years.
She also had the progesterone Mirena coil inserted in 2021 when she started HRT medication – which doctors have now told her not to take because of connections to meningioma tumours, she claims.
Meningiomas, the most common type of brain tumour, are a mostly non-cancerous brain tumour and are nearly twice as common in women compared to men.
In 2013, scientists from the Danish Cancer Research Centre found a link between post-menopausal hormone treatment HRT and meningioma.
Meningiomas have also been found among women who are pregnant or having fertility treatment, as oestrogen can interact with the tumour and potentially make it grow faster according to a 2012 study.
More recent research from 2021 has called into question the link between pregnancy and meningiomas, suggesting pregnant women are at lower risk of the tumours compared to women who haven’t had children.
And a study published in the British Medical Journal this year found prolonged use of certain progesterone medications – such as contraceptive injections with medroxyprogesterone acetate and some HRT – was linked to a greater risk of meningioma.
According to the NHS website, HRT causes no side effects in most people, and it the risk of serious ones is very low.
But is has been associated with a small increase in the risk of breast cancer.
“If you’re under 60 years old, have menopause symptoms, and are not at high risk of breast cancer or blood clots, the benefits of HRT are likely to outweigh the risks,” the NHS notes.
One night I was reading a story to my five-year-old and I could read the words but I couldn’t say them, something was going wrong between my eyes and mouth
Lucy Woodhouse
Nurse Lucy, from Hereford, said: “I was sat in a senior meeting at work and I just felt like I didn’t understand anything anyone was saying – I’m usually quite on the ball but they might as well have been speaking Chinese.
“I thought they were speaking a different language.
“One night I was reading a story to my five-year-old and I could read the words but I couldn’t say them, something was going wrong between my eyes and mouth.
“I started HRT two years before my brain tumour diagnosis – I think the meningioma was feeding off the oestrogen and progesterone.
“Every time I got a headache it was an hour after I fell asleep and then it would linger into the next day.
“It felt like I’d drunk six bottles of wine. They were disabling headaches – I would be doubled up on all fours on my bed rocking and trying to get rid of it.”
‘I BLAMED IT ON BEING A TIRED MUM’
The mum-of-three first started noticing symptoms around December 2023 and first went to the doctors on 19 February this year after experiencing a particularly bad headache while visiting London.
She says in retrospect there were symptoms six months prior – but she put it down to being a tired mum.
She asked to try migraine tablets, but the nurse in the GP surgery noticed she was blinking unevenly, and she was sent to her local hospital for a CT scan.
Following the scan, she was told by doctors they’d found something troubling and she was blue-lighted to The Grange in Cwmbran where she was told she had a brain tumour following an MRI.
When I was diagnosed I was beside myself and one of the hardest things was telling the kids – that was really difficult
Lucy Woodhouse
She was then sent to University Hospital of Wales in Cardiff where she the consultant told her they were taking a “watch and wait” approach.
However, Lucy says she sort out a second opinion from a private brain surgeon in London and was told they would operate immediately.
In May, she underwent major surgery to remove the tumour – which was growing just three millimetres from her optical nerve and could have caused her to go blind.
‘HARDEST PART’
Now, Lucy says she’s recovering well but still struggles with her memory at times.
“I’ve got a scar now, but I’m doing really well,” she said.
“I’ve got some bald patches and my memory isn’t amazing.
“When I was diagnosed I was beside myself and one of the hardest things was telling the kids – that was really difficult.
“My risk of seizure was very high, what worried me is I could have been driving on the motorway with my kids in the car and had a seizure.”
HRT and brain tumours
RESEARCH published to the British Medical Journal in 2024 found a link between certain contraceptives and HRT medication and intracranial meningiomas
It said women taking medroxyprogesterone acetate injections – a contraceptive known as Depo-Provera – were at five times the risk of developing the tumour. .
Women on medrogestone, which can be prescribed for the menopause, were at more than four times the risk.
Dr Mangesh Thorat, of King’s College London, said: “This large study using French national database confirms association between certain progestogens and meningioma risk.
“It also shows similar association, albeit at a much lower level, with three additional progestogens.”
But he said the results should “not give any reasons for women on progestogens to panic”.
He said: “Talk to your healthcare provider regarding the drug you are using. If it is associated with an increased risk of meningioma, this can be changed to a safer alternative.
“There is no reason to panic as the risk is very small and even in those who developed meningioma, stopping the specific drug has shown to cause regression in the size of meningioma.”
Read more on the study here.
Meningiomas are tumours that grow from the tissues that surround the brain and spinal cord.
Symptoms of meningioma depend on where the tumour is in the brain. Some meningiomas do not cause any symptoms.
They might be picked up when you have a brain scan for something else.
If you have symptoms these might include:
- Fits (seizures)
- Weakness in your arms or legs
- Loss of eyesight
- Hearing loss
Lucy had a few words of advice to people experiencing worrying symptoms like hers.
“Go and get your eyes tested, depending on where it is opticians can spot it.
“If you’re having headaches you don’t normally get with unusual presentation, you need to get it checked out.
“And if you’re a woman who has had a lot of hormone treatment, multiple rounds of IVF or HRT or been pumped full of hormones for whatever reason – given that strong link you should go and get a scan.”