A nurse was diagnosed with a brain tumour which made her think people were speaking a different language - and she blames it on taking HRT.<br /><br />Lucy Woodhouse, 43, says she experienced severe headaches which felt like hangovers and struggled to read aloud.<br /><br />But then in a meeting with colleagues she found herself unable to understand what they were saying, and tests revealed she had a golf ball-sized tumour. <br /><br />She says she believes the meningioma tumour is linked to the Depo-Provera contraceptive injection, rounds of IVF she had and HRT medication - all of which contain the hormone progesterone.<br /><br />She says she had the Depo-Provera injection multiple times in 1997, and in 2013 underwent three rounds of IVF over two years.<br /><br />She 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 says.<br /><br />Meningiomas, the most common type of brain tumour, are a mostly non-cancerous brain tumour and are nearly twice as common in females as males. <br /><br />In 2013, scientists from the Danish Cancer Research Centre found a link between post-menopausal hormone treatment HRT and meningioma. <br /><br />Meningiomas are also commonly 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. <br /><br />And a study published in the British Medical Journal this year found prolonged use of certain progesterone medications was linked to a greater risk of meningioma. <br /><br />According to the NHS website, it is common to have no side effects after taking HRT but is has been associated with a small increase in the risk of cancer.<br /><br />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. <br /><br />"I thought they were speaking a different language.<br /><br />“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. <br /><br />“I started HRT two years before my brain tumour diagnosis – I think the meningioma was feeding off the oestrogen and progesterone. <br /><br />“Every time I got a headache it was an hour after I fell asleep and then it would linger into the next day. <br /><br />“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.” <br /><br />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. <br /><br />She says in retrospect there were symptoms six months prior - but she put it down to being a tired mum. <br /><br />She asked to try migraine tablets, but the nurse in the GP surgery noticed she was blinking unevenly, and she was sent to her lo
