BBC Breakfast's Naga Munchetty 'stopped' talking about uterus condition after feeling 'gaslighted' by doctors
BBC Breakfast star Naga Munchetty has a uterus condition - that leaves her "screaining in agony" - and she stopped talking about it after doctors repetedly told her "that [she would] grow out of it".
Naga Munchetty “stopped” talking about her uterus condition because of “gaslighting” from her doctors.
The 'BBC Breakfast' star was diagnosed with adenomyosis - "where the lining of the uterus starts growing into the walls of the uterus" - when she was 47, but she thinks she has had it "since the age of about 15", but "every time" Naga told the doctors she would "often" be "screaming in agony" and burst out "crying" because of it, they said "it was normal or that I'd grow out of it".
Naga now considers the dismissive medical advice she received to be a "form of gaslighting".
Naga told The i newspaper: "I wasn't diagnosed with it until I was 47, but I've probably had it since the age of about 15.
"I'd always pass out when my periods started, have diarrhoea, feel dizzy and often be crying or screaming in agony.
"Every time I brought it up, I'd be told by doctors it was normal or that I'd grow out of it.
"When I look back on those occasions, I realise it was a form of gaslighting because I was effectively repeatedly told, 'You are just not coping with what is normal for everyone else.'
"So, I stopped bringing it up."
The 50-year-old presenter - who has written a book called 'It's Probably Nothing: Critical Conversations on the Women's Health Crisis (and How to Thrive Despite It)' - gets "very, very angry" when "women's pain is so easily dismissed".
She explained: "When you see the stories of so many women and their experiences of pain and misdiagnosis and lack of treatment all collated in one place, you think, 'This isn't good enough.'
"It's just wrong. I get very, very angry that women's pain is so easily dismissed.
"In my research for the book, I've learnt that, regardless of age, colour, class or background, women don't always speak up enough.
"We are too ready to doubt ourselves."
The broadcast journalist "fainted twice during a coil fitting" - which sees a small T-shaped device be inserted through the cervix and into the womb to stop women from getting pregnant for between five to 10 years - and it left her feeling "violated, weak and angry".
Naga admitted: "It took a lot of persuasion for me to talk about my terrible experience of the procedure on my radio programme.
"The response was overwhelming because so many other women had also had awful experiences with fittings and suffered excruciating pain - but had been similarly dismissed and told that they were the anomaly."
And Naga has encouraged more women to feel "empowered to speak up" and dismiss when people tell them to "stop being a moany woman" because of their pain.
She added: "We need to be empowered to speak up, without the fear of being told, 'Stop being a moany woman, you were made for childbirth and pain is your lot.'
"You cannot hear the experiences of all the women I interviewed and not be shocked.
"We deserve better, and we deserve improved healthcare."
