{"id":9279,"date":"2026-05-12T11:37:55","date_gmt":"2026-05-12T11:37:55","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.healthoptibody.com\/?p=9279"},"modified":"2026-05-12T11:37:55","modified_gmt":"2026-05-12T11:37:55","slug":"i-thought-my-hot-flushes-thinning-hair-and-brain-fog-were-caused-by-the-menopause-then-doctors-discovered-the-chilling-condition-that-was-really-to-blame-and-it-mostly-affects-women","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.healthoptibody.com\/?p=9279","title":{"rendered":"I thought my hot flushes, thinning hair and brain fog were caused by the menopause. Then doctors discovered the chilling condition that was really to blame… and it mostly affects women"},"content":{"rendered":"

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Mum of five Amanda Marshall had toddler twins, so initially dismissed her hair-thinning as a lingering post-partum problem. But, soon after, she began to get hot flushes and a racing heart. She told herself she must be going into the menopause<\/a>, as she was in her early 40s. But the farmer and small-business owner from Devon was worried when she began to have what she thought were panic attacks a few months later, so in October 2016 she went to the GP. And she wasn\u2019t expecting what they discovered.<\/p>\n

\u2018I lead an active lifestyle, so I ignored my symptoms for a long time,\u2019 she says. \u2018They just crept up on me.\u2019 Already mum to three kids with her ex-husband \u2013 Ciaran, now 24, Philippa, 22 and Roberta, 19 \u2013 Amanda had twins Ben and Toby, 12, with partner Mark, in 2013. Three years later, she started to notice her hair was breaking off.<\/p>\n

Amanda, now 50, says: \u2018I began to get hot flushes, which would come and go quite quickly, through the day. When walking up the hill from seeing to my farm animals, my heart would race and I\u2019d start to get very out of breath, too.\u2019<\/p>\n

\u2018I was in my 40s then, so I thought that perhaps I was in the menopause. I would come over exceptionally hot and get out of breath. Then one day, I was standing by the stables and my heart started beating so fast, I could feel it in my chest and had to lean over. I believed I was having a panic attack and thought perhaps this isn\u2019t what I thought it was. So that\u2019s when I went to the doctor\u2019s.\u2019<\/p>\n

Happily for Amanda, her GP acted immediately, putting her on beta-blockers for her heart, taking a blood test and spotting a lump in her neck. \u2018I was with an NHS<\/a> specialist in 10 days,\u2019 she says. An Ear, Nose and Throat specialist examined the lump and identified it was her thyroid, so Amanda was referred to an endocrinologist who told her she had Graves\u2019 disease. \u2018I\u2019d never heard of it before,\u2019 she says.<\/p>\n

According to the British Thyroid Foundation, around 1 in 20 people in the UK live with a thyroid condition. And 90 per cent of those are women. Most thyroid disorders are autoimmune conditions, where antibodies either destroy thyroid cells (hypothyroidism) or stimulate the thyroid to produce excess thyroid hormones (hyperthyroidism).<\/p>\n

Thyroid hormones regulate metabolism, explains Professor Kristien Boelaert, Consultant Endocrinologist and President of the Society for Endocrinology and the British Thyroid Association. \u2018Hyperthyroidism is too much thyroid hormone and hypothyroidism is not enough. Too much and your metabolism speeds up – you get a fast heart-rate, lose weight and get hot and sweaty,\u2019 she says. \u2018The opposite happens with hypothyroidism, so everything slows down – you gain weight, get fatigued, constipated and your skin becomes coarse and dry.\u2019<\/p>\n

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\"Amanda <\/div>\n<\/p><\/div>\n

Amanda combines dairy farming with looking after a horse, three donkeys, two dogs and chickens, plus running her 3 Donkeys women\u2019s overalls clothing brand<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

Amanda was diagnosed with Graves\u2019 disease, causing hyperthyroidism \u2013 although she says it hadn\u2019t caused her to lose weight. \u2018Sixty to 80 per cent of hyperthyroidism in the UK is caused by Graves\u2019 Disease, which is an autoimmune condition,\u2019 says Professor Boelaert. \u2018It means you produce antibodies against your thyroid. In Graves\u2019 disease, these antibodies stimulate the thyroid gland to make more thyroid hormones.\u2019<\/p>\n

The standard treatment is to start anti-thyroid medication, to block the enzyme that is responsible for thyroid hormone synthesis. Carbimazole is the most commonly used and this is what was prescribed to Amanda, in the hope it would get her thyroid back under control. It\u2019s usually continued for around 18 months, but because Amanda\u2019s levels would not regulate, nine months later specialists decided to operate and remove her thyroid completely. If left untreated, Graves\u2019 disease can cause heart failure and even prove fatal.<\/p>\n

If medication can\u2019t make the disease go into remission, there are two other treatment options, says Professor Boelaert. \u201cOne is to give radioactive iodine and the other, surgery, to remove the thyroid gland.\u201d She explains that surgery used to be very common 60 years ago, but is less used now, unless in very resistant cases, like Amanda\u2019s, in favour of lower-risk treatments.<\/p>\n

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\"Amanda <\/div>\n<\/p><\/div>\n

Amanda Marshall initially dismissed her hair-thinning in her forties as a lingering post-partum problem after having twins<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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\"Around <\/div>\n<\/p><\/div>\n

Around 1 in 20 people in the UK live with a thyroid condition \u2013 90 per cent of those are women<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

Following the surgery, Amanda now has to take thyroxine medication daily, to replace the lost thyroid hormones. Ironically, she now finds herself facing the menopause for real, as she\u2019s in her fifties. \u2018I thought: \u201cGive me a break!\u201d But I just have to pull up my Bridget Jones big pants and get on with it,\u2019 she says. \u2018I get the occasional hot flush and struggle to sleep, but I went on HRT and that\u2019s helping.\u2019<\/p>\n

Amanda says she tries to manage day-to-day stress and does suffer from brain fog. \u2018I now drop more balls than I juggle,\u2019 she says, combining dairy farming with looking after a horse, three donkeys, two dogs and chickens, plus running her 3 Donkeys women\u2019s overalls clothing brand.<\/p>\n

Overactive thyroids and Graves\u2019 Disease are often mistaken for menopause, says Professor Boelaert. \u2018The symptoms are often vague and commonly mistaken for the menopause. The peak time Graves\u2019 Disease occurs is in women aged around 40 and because women get sweaty, restless and don\u2019t sleep well, they often think it\u2019s the menopause,\u2019 she says. \u2018It is 10 times more common in women than men and the GP might initially think it\u2019s because you are going through the change.\u2019<\/p>\n

It\u2019s important to get treatment, she says, as if left untreated, it could result in heart-rate irregularities and heart failure. However, the good news is, it\u2019s a simple blood test to diagnose. \u2018If you are worried, ask your GP for a blood test,\u2019 says Professor Boelaert. But she cautions against using an at-home kit. \u2018The over-the-counter tests are not validated, they are unreliable. Always see your GP.\u2019<\/p>\n

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  • 3donkeys.co.uk<\/li>\n
  • british-thyroid-association.org<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

    Mum of five Amanda Marshall had toddler twins, so initially dismissed her hair-thinning as a lingering post-partum problem. But, soon after, she began to get hot flushes and a racing heart. She told herself she must be going into the menopause, as she was in her early 40s. But the farmer and small-business owner from<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":9280,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[520],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-9279","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-hot"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.healthoptibody.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9279","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.healthoptibody.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.healthoptibody.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.healthoptibody.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.healthoptibody.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=9279"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.healthoptibody.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9279\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.healthoptibody.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/9280"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.healthoptibody.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=9279"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.healthoptibody.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=9279"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.healthoptibody.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=9279"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}