Vicky Pattison has shared the emotional reason she decided to seek an Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD) diagnosis in her late thirties, revealing she feared that starting a family could make her symptoms harder to manage.
The presenter and reality TV star, who was diagnosed with the neurological condition in June, said she chose to undergo the assessment before embarking on her motherhood journey.
Fear of Motherhood as a Catalyst
The former I'm A Celebrity... Get Me Out of Here winner and Strictly star said she was anxious about how she would cope without medication, worried that entering motherhood at 38 could act as a 'catalyst' for her symptoms.
Speaking to Women's Health magazine, she explained: "It's not important for me to have the label – I know myself. But I'm aware there's been a lot of studies and personal experiences being shared about women rawdogging things such as autism and ADHD until they're in their forties, and then they unravel."
"I'm in my late thirties and about to embark on a journey to motherhood. I fear those will both be catalysts for me not being able to manage my ADHD any more in an unmedicated way."
Family Plans and Fertility Journey
Vicky has been open about her plans to start a family with her husband, Ercan Ramadan, after making the decision years ago to freeze her eggs. She said she wanted to take control of her fertility and had the treatment, which resulted in three embryos being frozen.
She recently shared in her show, Vicky Pattison: Maybe, Baby?, that she was at the point of being ready to become a mother. While aware of her privilege, she admitted: "I hope with all my heart that our journey [to parenthood] is a straightforward one – but if it's not, we have a backup plan. I've always said Ercan was the best decision I ever made..."
She added: "I look forward to the day when it's more affordable and readily available to all women... But we can't recommend it enough to anyone who's found happiness later in life, who hasn't found the man of their dreams, who has a question mark over it, if you're in a position to."
Ongoing Campaign for Women's Health
Meanwhile, Vicky has also spent years campaigning for better care for women's health following her premenstrual dysphoric disorder (PMDD) diagnosis – a debilitating condition that she's lived with for nearly a decade.
