A woman who was diagnosed with a brain tumour has shared four of the symptoms she experienced, including one doctors initially believed was simply caused by stress.
March is Brain Tumour Awareness Month in the UK, an initiative launched back in 2004. During this time, campaigners encourage us to learn about the symptoms of brain tumours so we can spot them earlier, as well as sharing the impact they have on patients and their loved ones.
Kerrie Smart first noticed the symptoms of her brain tumour when she was 42, and after it was discovered she had to have surgery to remove it. Taking to TikTok, she said: “I had a pituitary adenoma, which is a tumour of the pituitary gland which sits at the base of your brain.” She explained the tumour was 2cm, making it a macro adenoma, “so on the bigger side.”
Here are some of the symptoms Kerrie noticed.
Headaches
“The symptoms that I had first were headaches,” Kerrie said. “They started at […] the age of about 42.”
Kerrie said “didn’t typically” get headaches so she went to the doctor. However, her symptom was initially dismissed and the headaches were initially chalked up to stress. “Or it could be really anything,” Kerrie recalled her doctor saying.
Hair Loss
“I would lose hair, it would grow back, I would lose it again, it would grow back,” Kerrie continued. “That was a major one.”
The American Cancer Society states that larger pituitary adenomas can press on and destroy parts of the pituitary gland, which can affect the hormones it releases, “which can in turn lead to low levels of some body hormones such as cortisol, thyroid hormone, and sex hormones.”
Hair loss is just one of the symptoms that can occur when this happens. Others include feeling tired or weak, nexplained weight loss or weight gain, low blood pressure, feeling cold and growth of breast tissue and/or erectile dysfunction in men. It can even cause menstrual changes and decreased interest in sex, which Kerrie also experienced.
Mood changes
Kerrie said she is “not an anxious person” but that she had “major” symptoms of the mental health condition prior to being diagnosed with a brain tumour. “Some days I just felt like everything was too much,” she said.
Kerrie also said she became “quick to anger” before her diagnosis. “I would, like, fly off the handle for any little thing and that is so not my nature,” she added. “I felt like I was almost going crazy.”
Menopause-like symptoms
Kerrie said she “just stopped getting her period.” “At 42 they thought that was kind of early,” she said. This, she said, was the “trigger for the testing” to see if she had a brain tumour.
She also said she had no sex drive and that “that was another big one” when it came to realising something was wrong. “There are so many symptoms that can mimic perimenopause or menopause, and so at this age, [doctors] look at those things first, so they don’t even think about looking to see if you have a brain tumour,” Kerrie said.
Kerrie said that when she was tested to see if she was experiencing menopause, “all my levels were normal” except for prolactin, a hormone that stimulates breast development and milk production in women.
Because prolactin is released from the pituitary gland, this prompted medics to carry out an MRI and find Kerrie’s tumour.
According to the NHS, there are two main types of brain tumour: non-cancerous (benign) brain tumours and cancerous (malignant) brain tumours. The symptoms of a brain tumour will vary depending on what type of the brain is affected.
However, common symptoms include headaches, seizures, persistently feeling sick or being sick and drowsiness, mental or behavioural changes, such as memory problems or changes in personality, progressive weakness or paralysis on one side of the body, and vision or speech problems.