'Losing my hair is a similar loss to having a mastectomy': Tory MP Nadine Dorries says she cries every day after her locks started falling out
- She embarrassed Conservative party appearing on I'm A Celebrity in 2012
- MP for Mid Bedfordshire only just had Tory whip restored following incident
- Told ITV Daybreak she wishes to highlight problem of women losing hair
- Said it's like 'watching my femininity go down the plughole'
|
Posing in an evening dress at the Houses of Parliament or stripping down to her swimsuit on national TV, Nadine Dorries has always made the most of her glamorous looks.
But these days the 56-year-old MP is far from confident when she gazes in the mirror.
Yesterday she spoke frankly of her battle with alopecia, the auto-immune condition that has left her hair falling out.
Scroll down for video
Nadine Dorries on Daybreak talking about losing her hair
Nadine Dorries showed her thinning scalp on Daybreak and revealed she cries every morning over losing her hair
Miss Dorries, one of David Cameron’s most rebellious MPs, told how she had first realised she was losing hair when in the shower.
Then she noticed a distinct bald patch at the back of her head when she saw herself on camera in a TV interview.
‘The worst part is every single morning when you get up and look in the mirror,’ she said yesterday.
‘That actually does make you cry every morning, so that’s the worst part because it’s a bit like your femininity is going down the shower, it’s going down the plug hole.
‘I’m terrified it’s going to get worse, because it’s actually getting so thin. I’m actually really worried it’s going to get worse.’
Miss Dorries said a woman’s hair, just like breasts, were obvious signs of her femininity.
Nadine Dorries said: 'Women who suffer from mastectomies, I think, go through the same confidence-draining loss because what defines you as a woman is disappearing'
Lorraine Kelly discussing hair loss with Nadine Dorries on Daybreak today
Nadine Dorries on I'm A Celebrity... Get Me Out Of Here in 2012
She said she could
identify with the loss of confidence often felt by women who have
mastectomies. ‘I realised that when men go bald and when they lose their
hair, what they tend to do is have a mid-life crisis and go out and
have an affair but what women tend to do is to actually go into their
houses and lock the door,’ she said.
‘Everything’s against you and you’re losing your femininity.
‘You’re losing your confidence and
you’re losing your ability to go out and actually face the world because
you think what identifies a woman are her hair and her breasts.
‘Women who suffer from mastectomies, I
think, go through the same confidence-draining loss because what defines
you as a woman is disappearing.’ Miss Dorries, the MP for
Mid-Bedfordshire, started treatment for alopecia yesterday.
‘There is
help available, you can do something – I’m going at 10.30 this morning
to a clinic to have my first treatments,’ she told ITV’s Daybreak show .
Miss Dorries has had a colourful career since she was elected in 2005.
She was suspended from the Tory party
last November after she took time out of Westminster to appear on the
ITV show I’m a Celebrity Get Me Out of Here! in the Australian jungle.
She also got in hot water for describing David Cameron and George Osborne as ‘arrogant posh boys who don’t know the price of milk’.
Nadine Dories speaking to Aled Jones and Lorraine Kelly about the trauma of losing your hair as a woman
Dorries said: 'Women who suffer from mastectomies, I think, go through the same confidence-draining loss because what defines you as a woman is disappearing'
Stress, childbirth, medication and weight loss: Why do women lose their hair?
An estimated 8 million women in the UK have hair loss (medically known as alopecia), and it can lead to loss of self-confidence and heightened self-consciousness, according to the NHS.
Hair loss is a well-known side effect of chemotherapy, and around 50 per cent
of women lose more hair than usual after they've given birth
Jackie McKillop, Alopecia UK spokesperson and junior nursing sister at Addenbrooke's Hospital in Cambridge, told nhs.co.uk:
'For women, there is a social stigma attached to going bald,' she says. 'Hair loss can affect your sensuality and how you perceive yourself. There are usually emotional trials and tribulations when it happens.
'Some women question whether their partner will still love them, while I've known others become socially reclusive and give up enjoyable activities like swimming and going to the gym because they can't bear using the communal changing rooms for fear of their hair loss being discovered.'
An estimated eight million women in the UK suffer from hair loss, for reasons including pregnancy, stress, medication or weight loss
TYPES OF HAIR LOSS
Telogen effluvium
General shedding and thinning of the hair. It usually occurs a few months after a shock to the system, such as extreme stress, fever, childbirth, sudden weight loss, an operation or as a reaction to medication. The hair loss is usually temporary.
Female-pattern baldness (androgenetic alopecia)
Hair gradually thins, often from the top of the head. It usually gets more noticeable after the menopause and tends to run in families.
Alopecia areata
Affects mostly teenagers and young adults. Hair loss is patchy and linked to a problem with the immune system. The hair follicles are not permanently damaged, and in many cases hair grows back in a few months.
Alopecia totalis
Complete loss of hair on the head. Regrowth is unlikely.
Alopecia universalis
Total loss of head and body hair.
- Female Israeli soldiers disciplined for 'unbecoming...
- Dramatic video captures ship launch going horribly wrong
- Sitting in a hospital cubicle, clutching his stomach... The...
- 'They were screaming "we're going to die, we're going to...
- White supremacist turns up at court in full Nazi regalia to...
- Doctors, lawyers, teachers and students among 104 men...
- Terrifying video captures moment German drone missed Afghan...
- Shocking picture of Taco Bell employee licking taco shells...
- Rape victim speaks out in bid to find man who attacked and...
- The fairy-tale wedding of internet guru Sean Parker: First...
- Texas farmer is pursued across field and stung to DEATH by...
- Britons warned to steer clear of Turkey as 1,700 protesters...
Isn't she Ann Widdecombe's mum.
- Nermal the guru , London, 04/6/2013 03:03
Report abuse