Woman Says Her Stroke Symptoms Were Blamed on Hormones and Ignored

In a now-viral Twitter thread, a woman warned the internet about the various symptoms she had after having a stroke that she initially "attributed to hormones" and she says doctors ignored.

Posting to the social media platform on Tuesday, Tabitha McIntosh wrote: "I had a stroke last Thursday while eating a sandwich. I didn't recognize it, the people I went to dinner with four hours later didn't recognize it [and] the doctor in A&E [accident and emergency] didn't recognize it when I went in six days afterward."

The thread has amassed over 90,000 likes and hundreds of comments thanking McIntosh for sharing her "invaluable" information.

McIntosh shared her story in response to a now-viral tweet from Mark Harrison, a senior clerk with 12CP Barristers.

"So I had a stroke on Wednesday at my desk. Luckily colleagues recognized the symptoms and I was in hospital within 35 minutes. Please retweet and remind people [of] Face, Arm, Speech & Time. Time is key for stroke victims and I owe everything to those @12CPBarristers who acted," Harrison said.

F.A.S.T.

First introduced in the United Kingdom in 1998, "Face, Arm, Speech and Time," or F.A.S.T., is an acronym used by the National Stroke Association and other leading health organizations to "educate the public on detecting symptoms of a stroke," said Beaumont Health, a Michigan-based health care system.

"Does one side of the face droop or is it numb? Is one arm weak or numb? Is speech slurred?" the American Stroke Association asked in a digital handout. "If the person shows any of these symptoms, even if the symptoms go away, [it's time to] call 9-1-1 and get them to the hospital immediately."

Other symptoms of a stroke not alluded to in the acronym include sudden confusion, trouble seeing in one or both eyes, loss of balance and a sudden "severe headache with no known cause." Anyone experiencing one or more of these symptoms should call emergency services immediately, said the American Stroke Association.

"Acute stroke treatments are time-dependent after a stroke occurs," said Beaumont Health. "Identifying and reacting to stroke symptoms quickly is crucial to achieving proper treatment for an individual experiencing a stroke."

McIntosh's Story

McIntosh said her "face, arm [and] speech were 'fine'" after her stroke. However, she did experience some of the other aforementioned symptoms, but she initially blamed those on hormones.

"I had visual whiteout then a sudden headache that persisted for days," she said, adding that she, herself, attributed it to perimenopause. "If you are in your 50s [and] female, almost everything will be attributed to hormones. You have spent your entire adult life having symptoms dismissed. You learn to dismiss them yourself."

According to Johns Hopkins Medicine, headaches are a common symptom of perimenopause.

At one point after having her stroke, McIntosh experienced limb-kinetic apraxia, "an inability to make precise movements with a finger, an arm or a leg," she said.

"A&E sent me home because my speech was great, my face wasn't drooping [and] I could hold both arms straight. If they had asked me to close my eyes and touch my nose, they would have seen me stick my finger directly into my eye," she wrote. "So I went back three days later because I knew that something was profoundly wrong. This time I brought evidence."

McIntosh's "evidence" was a piece of paper with the opening sentence of Jane Austen's Pride and Prejudice written across the top, along with several failed attempts at typing the line herself. Upon seeing this, a nurse took McIntosh to get a brain scan, and finally, 11 hours later, she was taken to a stroke ward.

"The ambulance driver said," according to McIntosh, "'I've never had a walking, talking stroke patient'" to which she replied, "Walking, talking and charming. Please. Which matters. Because diagnosis is biased."

"If I was less articulate, hadn't brought proof, hadn't stayed calm, was less white and middle class...they would have sent me home again without a diagnosis," she wrote.

"Your stroke may be silent. Part of your brain may die, and the indicators will be entirely elusive to non-stroke-specialist doctors while it dies. Headaches that last for days need medical attention. Just because you're female doesn't mean it's hormones. Trust yourself," she concluded.

Twitter Reacts

Commenters thanked McIntosh for speaking about her experience, calling the information she shared "invaluable."

"Really useful knowing these signs thanks, T...[I] hope you're recovering well and I for one am thankful for your wit and humor," Rani Tiwana said.

"This is such a useful thread and [I] am so glad you're better enough to write it," Dan Phillips wrote.

"This is a great thread as I wasn't aware this can happen. Thanks for sharing and [I] hope you're on the road to recovery," Endeavour tweeted.

Amie added: "This thread is invaluable."

Newsweek has reached out to Tabitha McIntosh for comment.

Other Viral Threads

On Thursday, a woman went viral on Twitter for sharing the "signs and symptoms" of a spiked drink.

A woman also went viral on the social media platform Thursday for sharing a note she found from her father nine years after his death.

And in June, a woman sparked a heated debate after tweeting her theory as to why the true crime genre receives so much "backlash."