Two years ago, Katy Quinn, a 51-year-old Brooklyn, NY, actress, was diagnosed with Lyme disease—her fifth bout with it. She’d grown up in Old Lyme, CT, so she was intimately aware of the symptoms of the tick-borne disease named after the nearby town. She was put on a two-week course of antibiotics, but it wasn’t sufficient, and her symptoms worsened; she had excruciating pressure headaches, constantly dilated pupils, and a quickening heartbeat. That was when she sought out an infectious-disease specialist.

But the doctor took one look at her age and said her symptoms were likely from perimenopause. Katy was stunned. “It was scary, because untreated Lyme can be very dangerous, and it looked like she might not give me more antibiotics,” she says. Fortunately, the doctor relented, but not until Katy told her that her husband (who also had been diagnosed with Lyme) had similar symptoms—and only after Katy produced blood work from an endocrinologist showing steady hormone levels (meaning she wasn’t nearing menopause yet). Katy was placed on an antibiotic regimen that ultimately took 16 weeks to cure her.

This story is not an isolated one.

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