BBC presenter Naga Munchetty has bravely spoken out about her hidden health battle with adenomyosis, a condition where womb tissue grows into the muscular uterine wall. The 51-year-old revealed that the pain is so overwhelming she will "faint and throw up," and this happened just before she was due to appear on BBC Breakfast last month.
Munchetty's Experience with Adenomyosis
Munchetty described the agony as "overwhelming would be an understatement." She explained that the condition causes her to collapse and vomit regularly. Speaking to the Mirror, she said: "We're shouting about adenomyosis, we're shouting about endometriosis. We're shouting about this health gap and care gap that exists, and it will take years to be heard, but you've got to start somewhere."
She added: "I've spoken about it on my platforms, you know, Five Live and Breakfast as a journalist, but it's a very difficult thing to do. I don't want to keep saying I'm in pain. It doesn't do my mental health any good. It takes me back to a time when I was at school and vomiting, throwing up, fainting. I fainted just in the last month when I had a period again just before work and was really ill."
Call for Awareness and Recognition
Munchetty, who hosts BBC 5 Live and BBC Breakfast, called for greater awareness and recognition of adenomyosis and endometriosis. She ranted on the White Wine Question Time podcast: "We're ill, and yet we get all this other stuff and it makes you feel like you're doing less well than other women. I would look around and think 'she's doing brilliantly, she's coping, look at how far she's gone, I'm not doing well enough'. I would look at my peers and think 'they're just cracking on with it, why is it affecting you so much − when I have something different?'"
She continued: "I have an illness, a condition, but because I was told it was normal, when someone says you're in pain I say I'm fine. I get really p****d off and really angry. I'm not in pain every minute of the day but when it comes, my goodness, overwhelming is an understatement − I'm ill, I can pass out, I throw up. I will be doubled up and I will lie on the floor because I need to feel uncomfortable to distract me."
Love for Live Broadcasting
Despite her pain, Munchetty expressed her love for presenting live television. She said: "Live for me is so much better for the way my mind works. You have to be really sharp when you are broadcasting live, but if you fluff a word you just move on. I love being live and it feels you have a connection with the audience you wouldn't feel if you put something out which is pre-recorded. I love that part about being live."
