Brain tumours: Teenagers and young adults

Symptoms

This section on brain tumours is for teenagers and young adults.


The symptoms of a brain tumour depend on the size of the tumour and where it is.

The tumour can:

cause fits affect the messages sent by that part of the brain to other parts of the body cause ‘raised intracranial pressure’ – there’s only a certain amount of space in the skull for the brain and as a tumour grows, there can be a rise in pressure in or around the brain

Common symptoms of ‘raised intracranial pressure’ are:

headaches, which are often worse in the morning vomiting (usually in the morning) or feeling sick fits (seizures) feeling very irritated or losing interest in day-to-day things like friends, school or going out problems with your eyes, such as blurring or seeing double feeling more sleepy or drowsy than usual changes in your balance and walking, or weakness down one side of the body problems with speech personality changes

There’s often a simple explanation for many of these symptoms. But if you have any of these or if you’re worried, it’s important to speak to your GP straight away.