Naga Munchetty has opened up about her life long battle with adenomyosis after years of dealing with excruciating pain and no answers to solve it.

The BBC presenter, 50, lived with painful heavy bleeding, vomiting, fainting and severe aching every two and a half weeks for 32 years before a private doctor finally gave her a diagnosis in 2022.

Adenomyosis is a condition where the lining of the womb (uterus) starts growing into the muscle in the wall of the womb. It can affect one in 10 women, as per the NHS.

She told The Sunday Times: ‘It makes you angry. If you are second-guessing that you are not strong enough to be a woman, that you are weaker than all the other women because you’re told it’s all normal, everyone’s going through it, you second-guess other parts of your life.’

‘I’ve never been suicidal but definitely, because there were no answers, I just thought, I can’t go through this in another two and a half weeks. It just needs to stop’, she added.

Before she was diagnosed, in 2019 Naga opted to get sterilised in an attempt to stop her symptoms because she thought it was her ‘only option’.

Naga Munchetty, 50, has opened up about her life long battle with adenomyosis after years of dealing with excruciating pain and no answers to solve it

The BBC presenter lived with painful heavy bleeding, vomiting, fainting and severe aching every two and a half weeks for 32 years before a private doctor finally gave her a diagnosis in 2022 (pictured with co-star Charlie Stayt)

Female sterilisation is a permanent type of contraception, which requires keyhole surgery, where the fallopian tubes are blocked or cut to stop sperm meeting an egg.

For Naga, she said the procedure wasn’t a tough decision as she and her husband James Haggar, 52, were certain they didn’t want children.

She said: ‘I knew I didn’t want children and I didn’t want to be reliant on hormones or the regimen of the pill because it didn’t fit with my lifestyle. It felt like it was my only option.’

Naga completely ruled out a hysterectomy because she didn’t believe it would eradicate her pain.

Today, Naga takes the hormonal contraceptive pill to prevent periods and is on HRT for the perimenopause. 

Naga said she still lives with adenomyosis to this day.

‘Two ultrasounds and an MRI later, there is still no solution’, says Naga but says she remains hopeful more funding is available for research into women’s health.

In 2023, she told how she suffered a flare-up of her adenomyosis, which got so bad that her husband called an ambulance for her. 

What is Adenomyosis?

Adenomyosis is a condition where the lining of the womb (uterus) starts growing into the muscle in the wall of the womb. 

It can affect one in 10 women. 

There are treatments that can help with any symptoms.

Adenomyosis is more commonly diagnosed in women over the age of 30. 

It can affect anyone who has periods.

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What is Sterilisation?

Female sterilisation is a permanent type of contraception, where the fallopian tubes are blocked or cut to stop sperm meeting an egg.

Fallopian tubes connect the ovaries with the womb.

This is sometimes called tubal ligation or “getting your tubes tied”.

Sterilisation is more than 99% effective at preventing pregnancy. It does not affect your hormones and you’ll still have periods.

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Before she was diagnosed, in 2019 Naga opted to get sterilised in an attempt to stop her symptoms because she thought it was her ‘only option’ 

For Naga, she said the procedure wasn’t a tough decision as she and her husband James Haggar, 52, were certain they didn’t want children (pictured together in 2017) 

Read More BBC Breakfast’s Naga Munchetty reveals debilitating womb condition that saw her husband needing to call an ambulance

The presenter said on BBC Radio 5 Live: ‘The pain was so terrible I couldn’t move, turn over, sit up. I screamed non-stop for 45 minutes.

‘And then it happened again in the middle of the night and we had to call an ambulance because I couldn’t be moved. And I was just screaming.

‘All I remember saying is ‘if the ambulance comes’, which it didn’t. ‘Do not let them, give me a full hysterectomy’ because that is the only cure to get rid of it.’

‘It was like something was exploding inside of me constantly. It was all around my pelvic area, down my thigh, and my lower back – to the point I couldn’t turn over.’ 

Speaking to the Independent she also discussed a time she nearly pᴀssed out on BBC Breakfast due to the sever pain.

She recalled: ‘I just said, ‘I have to leave’. And I went to the loo and I thought I was going to pᴀss out, but I threw up and then just came back.’

The broadcaster has had a long wait for answers and treatment from doctors and revealed she’s in pain even as she works.

She said on the radio: ‘Right now as I sit here talking to you: I am in pain. Constant, nagging pain.

‘In my uterus. Around my pelvis. Sometimes it runs down my thighs.

‘And I’ll have some level of pain for the entire show and for the rest of the day until I go to sleep.’