Tory MP Nadine Dorries speaks of hair loss on Daybreak

Former I'm a Celebrity...Get Me Out of Here! star says it makes her 'cry every morning'

James Legge
Monday 03 June 2013 16:33 BST
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Rebellious Tory MP Nadine Dorries has revealed she suffering from alopecia, telling a breakfast TV programme it makes her "cry every morning."

Ms Dorries who represents Mid Bedfordshire and only recently had the Tory whip restored after her unauthorised trip to take part in I'm A Celebrity... Get Me Out Of Here!, told ITV1's Daybreak that she was speaking out to highlight that treatment is available to women who suffer similar problems.

She said she noticed her hair coming out during a television interview, during which she caught a glimpse of a bald patch in a camera.

She said: "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, and there is help available, you can do something.

"The worst part is every morning you wake up and you look in the mirror, that actually does make you cry every morning.

"It's a bit like your femininity is going down the shower, it's going down the plughole."

After a year in the spotlight, which she called the "best year of my life," Ms Dorries said she knew the condition is linked to stress, and that she had a friend who started taking anti-depressants due to her own hair falling out.

Mr Dorries called the condition a "confidence stealer," likening it to when women have a mastectomy.

She said: "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."

Ms Dorries has caused a few headaches for her party's leadership, branding David Cameron and George Osborne "arrogant posh boys," and revealing last month that she is looking into standing as a joint Conservative-Ukip candidate at the next election.

She told the programme she was due to have her first appointment to try to combat the problem later on Monday.

Additional reporting, PA

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