BBC Breakfast host Naga Munchetty has spoken about a painful health condition that she endured for 32 years before finding out what it was, and that there is no cure.
Naga appeared on Lorraine today, speaking to Christine Lampard about her new book, It’s Probably Nothing, and the medical misogyny she has endured for more than three decades.
Naga, 5o, explained that it all began when she started her periods when she was 15 years old.
BBC Breakfast host Naga Munchetty’s incurable health battle
She told Christine, who is standing in for Lorraine Kelly after she underwent an operation at the weekend: “I started my periods at 15, but mine involved extreme pain, doubled over in pain, throwing up, passing out, cramps, fainting over and over again and really really heavy periods.”
BBC Breakfast host Naga added: “To the point where I was setting an alarm at night to change my period products. Lying on the floor because if I was uncomfortable on the floor, maybe it could detract from the pain.
“I told the doctors my periods were really heavy and painful and they said, you’ll grow out of it.”
‘It may be common, but it’s not normal’
Naga then said that she was also given different forms of contraception to ease the symptoms.
Urging other women not to be fobbed off, she continued: “It may be common, but it’s not normal. It was only when, because I had a cyst on my ovary, I had a scan that they found I had adenomyosis.
You think, am I really weak? Am I just not coping as a woman?
“The easy way to describe it is the evil twin to endometriosis. It’s when the uterine wall grows outside the uterus. It had grown into my pelvis and lower back. Ultimately, the pain is when hormones react and it tears the muscles so that’s the pain. And you have really heavy bleeding, but it was never diagnosed.”
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‘There is no cure’
Sadly, she added: “And the fact is, even though it is now diagnosed, there is no cure. So it’s just management through hormones or hysterectomy, which I’ve refused to have.”
Speaking about the impact it had on her mentally, Naga added: “You think, am I really weak? Am I just not coping as a woman?
“We’re all trying to be the best we can, and I was prevented from being the best I could.”
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