A nurse was diagnosed with a brain tumor that caused her to feel as though people were speaking a different language, and she attributes it to hormone replacement therapy (HRT). Lucy Woodhouse, 43, experienced severe headaches that felt like hangovers and had difficulty reading aloud, the New York Post reported.
During a meeting with colleagues, she suddenly couldn't understand what they were saying, leading to tests that revealed a golf ball-sized tumor in her head. She believes the meningioma tumor is linked to the Depo-Provera contraceptive injection, rounds of in vitro fertilization (IVF), and HRT medication-all of which contain the hormone progesterone.
Lucy received the Depo-Provera injection multiple times in 1997, underwent three rounds of IVF over two years starting in 2013, and had the progesterone Mirena coil inserted in 2021 when she began HRT medication. She says doctors have now advised her to stop HRT due to its connection to meningioma tumors.
Meningiomas, the most common type of brain tumor, are mostly non-cancerous and nearly twice as common in females as in males. In 2013, scientists from the Danish Cancer Research Centre found a link between post-menopausal HRT and meningioma. Meningiomas are also commonly found among women who are pregnant or undergoing fertility treatment, as estrogen can interact with the tumor and potentially accelerate its growth, according to a 2012 study. Additionally, a study published in the British Medical Journal this year found that prolonged use of certain progesterone medications was linked to a greater risk of meningioma.
According to the NHS website, while it is common to have no side effects from taking HRT, it has been associated with a small increase in cancer risk. 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."
The mother of three first noticed symptoms around December 2023 and visited the doctor on February 19, 2024, after experiencing a particularly bad headache while in London.
In retrospect, she believes there were symptoms six months earlier, but she attributed them to being a tired mom. She asked to try migraine tablets, but a nurse at the GP surgery noticed she was blinking unevenly and referred her to her local hospital for a CT scan.
After the scan, doctors informed her they had found something concerning and she was rushed to The Grange in Cwmbran, where an MRI revealed she had a brain tumor. She was then sent to University Hospital of Wales in Cardiff, where the consultant recommended a "watch and wait" approach.
However, Lucy sought a second opinion from a private brain surgeon in London, who advised immediate surgery. In May, she underwent major surgery to remove the tumor, which was growing just three millimeters from her optic nerve and could have caused blindness. She is now recovering well but still struggles with her memory at times.
