Anna, from Taunton, had no idea the depression that landed her in hospital was actually early menopause.
In November 2020, I caught Covid and was quite unwell.But it was coming into Christmas and I just thought it's a busy time, and I'm just a bit run down.Anna sees a psychiatrist
He said "everyone's going through a stressful time" so he put my antidepressant dose up and said "I'm sure you'll be fine in a few weeks".I got worse and worse and worse and all the things I was doing weren't helping and I couldn't understand - in the past I'd always responded so quickly to medication and therapy.
It got to the June and my OCD was completely out of control and I was terrified by all these horrible thoughts I was having.Anna was on six psychiatric drugs when she was admitted to hospitalThe two other doctors that I saw put me more medications and ultimately took me into psychiatric hospital. They kept trying to make me go to these therapy sessions and I kept saying 'I've got nothing wrong in my life, I've got nothing to say".I was functional by them and I was on the maximum doses of the antidepressants. I just didn't feel like me.I thought, no I'm only 45 and this is really extreme, it can't be anything to do with menopause."I don't think people realise that oestrogen is very important in your brain," said AnnaIt saved my life.
I advise all women over 35 to download the free Balance app where you can monitor your symptoms over time and print a health report and charts you can take to your doctor.Additional reporting: Harriet Robinson and Carrian Jones