When Jess Beattie was prescribed hormone replacement therapy by her GP in January 2025, she thought it would change her life after months of feeling exhausted and like her brain wasn’t functioning properly. But three months later, she found herself sitting on the bathroom floor at two o’clock in the morning, sobbing so hard she could barely breathe. “My husband was crouched beside me, asking whether he should call someone. I remember looking at him and saying: ‘I think I’m going mad.’”
Beattie hadn’t slept properly in days, as anxious thoughts were keeping her up at night. Her breasts were swollen and so tender that she wouldn’t even allow her husband to hug her anymore, and her periods had become painful and heavy.
The mood swings were what scared Beattie the most: “One minute I’d be crying uncontrollably; the next I’d be incandescent with rage over something as ridiculous as an unemptied dishwasher. Sometimes, my husband looked genuinely frightened by my outbursts.”
Just before Beattie turned 45, she’d gone to her doctor believing she had some kind of early dementia. The project manager from West Yorkshire says: “During an important work meeting, somebody asked me a straightforward question about a project I’d been working on for months. My mind went completely blank. I knew the answer, but I couldn’t reach it. At home, I’d put my phone down and immediately forget where it was. I’d walk into the kitchen and have no idea why I was there. My dad had dementia, and I was convinced I had it too.”
