Metro – 'Symptoms Were So Bad I Worried I Had Dementia' (Mar 2 2026)

Tier 2: Professional organization or credentialed expert guidance
Publisher: Metro (UK) – first-person essay by Catherine Folan · Published: March 2, 2026 · Accessed: August 28, 2026

Visit the source ↗

Claims this source supports

• First-person account (Metro, Mar 2 2026): a woman at 46 with undiagnosed perimenopause struggled with memory and word-finding – at her lowest point she worried she had early-onset dementia, unable to explain why she couldn't remember conversations from the previous day.
• The essay describes six months of waking at ~2am, overwhelming anxiety, and reduced socialising before a GP appointment that finally named perimenopause.
• The essay cites Royal College of Psychiatrists polling: nearly three-quarters of UK women don't know menopause can trigger a new mental illness, and perimenopausal women are more than twice as likely to develop bipolar disorder and 30% more likely to develop clinical depression.