Ulrika Jonsson feared menopause was dementia setting in
The TV star said she did not know what was happening to her.
Ulrika Jonsson has said she feared the menopause was dementia setting in.
The TV personality has said that hormonal changes left her emotionally and mentally drained.
Jonsson wrote in the Daily Mail that she is not surprised marriages can break down in mid-life, after the menopause radically changed her.
The presenter has said the confusion which set in as her hormone balance altered made her fear she was developing dementia.
She said that she was too scared to tell her doctor but other women in her life guided her through the changes she was experiencing.
Jonsson has also said she had to let go of thinking of herself as a potential mother, and that one part of her life is over.
She told of her fears when she began to lose sleep, gain weight and lose her memory, saying: “It seemed like yet another sign that, aged just 46, I was developing early onset dementia.
“You see, I had so many symptoms of this debilitating condition that it seemed perfectly reasonable to suspect I was heading down that path.
“I was too scared to go to my doctor in case tests confirmed these terrible fears.”
The changes she suffered left her exhausted but suffering insomnia, and emotionally ravaged by hormonal changes.
She believes that this dramatic shift is what can cause marriages to collapse for many older couples.
Jonsson said: “The menopause isn’t what ended my marriage, but I’m not surprised that many couples do break up at this point in a woman’s life.”
She added: “I won’t say I ever became completely myself again — I had to reconcile myself to the end of my fertile years which, even though I didn’t want more children, felt like saying goodbye to a way of life.”
