Doctor wrote off my hair loss and dizziness as ‘just being a tired mum’

After giving birth to her second child, Rose Stokes was exhausted all the time.

“I couldn’t really do anything more than the bare minimum in terms of looking after my kids. I’d put them down at seven and have to get straight into bed,” the freelance journalist says.

Rose thought it was just what being a mum of two young children was like.

But being tired wasn’t the only problem.

“I also had other symptoms, like my hair was falling out.

“I had a funny, metallic taste [in my mouth] all the time. I kept getting tongue ulcers as well and [experienced] breathlessness and dizziness.

“I went to the doctor’s a few times and every time was told, ‘oh well, you’re a mum of small children, what do you expect?’ – but the level of exhaustion was just so intense,” she told BBC Radio 4’s Woman’s Hour.