The brain scan had shown a meningioma – a ‘suprasellar’ meningioma growing from the meninges, the membrane that encases the brain and spinal cord – at the base of her brain. It was pressing upwards onto the optic nerves where they run back from the eyes to enter the brain. These particular tumours are always benign and usually grow quite slowly, but some of them have oestrogen receptors and, very occasionally, the tumours can expand rapidly during pregnancy when oestrogen levels rise.
