Misdiagnosis meant I lost four years of life

Katie taylor, 49, runs the lattelounge.co website for women over 40. She lives in london with her husband hugh, 53, who works in the hotel industry. they have four children. She says: WHEN I was about 45, I went to my GP because I didn’t feel ‘right’. I was very teary, very low. I felt like I had brain fog. The GP said I was probably stressed and depressed. I was working full-time, with four children — perhaps I should take some time off or take antidepressants? I thought I’d simply try going to the gym a bit more or eat more healthily, but nothing helped. So I tried antidepressants. They didn’t help. They numbed everything. I felt as if I was plodding through life but not really enjoying it. I was sent to heart specialists because I’d complained of palpitations. The doctor even suggested, as I was forgetting words and not thinking straight, that it could be early dementia. I put on weight, became something of a recluse and felt like a failure. Yet not once did the GP mention HRT. After four years of going to and fro from the GP, it was my father, Professor Michael Baum, a surgical oncologist who specialises in breast cancer, who suspected my low mood was hormonal and sent me to one of his consultant friends. Straight away, she deduced that I was going through the perimenopause and put me on HRT. Within a month, I was off antidepressants and feeling like a new woman. I remember watching TV and thinking: ‘That’s the first time I’ve laughed in four years.’ I felt very angry that I’d lost four years of my life.