Sue Perkins has written about the shocking comments she said she received from a Doctor when she discovered she was infertile.
In her memoir, Spectacles, published in the Sunday Times, Sue writes that a consultant in hospital explained the effect of a benign tumour on her pituitary gland.
The consultant asked if she had a husband or boyfriend and he reportedly responded: “Oh, OK. Well, that makes it easier. You’re infertile. You can’t have kids.”
Sue, who has been in a relationship with fellow TV presenter Anna Richardson since 2013, said she was "shocked" by the comments.
"Does a lesbian not have a fallopian tube? Am I not human, and [am] I not somebody who could be a lovely, wonderful mother?"
She added: "It really did hit me, as it hits a lot of people, I’m sure, when it’s too late, this is not going to happen… It’s not going to ever be part of my life. And, although I never yearned to physically have my own child, it felt like a bereavement. It really did."
Perkins revealed that she had a brain tumour in an interview with Good Housekeeping earlier this month.
Earlier, we wrote...
Sue Perkins, co-host of the Great British Bake-Off, has revealed that she has been living with a brain tumour for eight years.
The presenter has a non-canceorus tumour in her pituitary gland, which prevents her from having children.
In an interview with Good Housekeeping magazine, Perkins revealed the tumour was discovered while she was undergoing medical tests for BBC show Supersizers.
“I was at a point where I was spending so much of my life doing TV that I only found out about my real life through a television procedure.” she said.
“I’m lucky that it’s benign so it’s not in itself a worrying thing. Sometimes it’s big and makes me mad, and sometimes it’s small and is in the background. Sometimes it screws up my hormones. I have various tests now to make sure the side effects aren’t too onerous.”
She also spoke about how the tumour prevented her from having children.
“We live in a time and place where we think everything is possible,” she said. “I don’t know if I would have gone on to have children. But as soon as someone says you can’t have something, you want it more than anything."
Perkins took to social media to thank fans for their messages of support:
"Ta for sweet tweets about my prolactinoma. It's benign & non-symptomatic. All fine." she tweeted.
"Let's focus on those less fortunate in the world," she added.