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The Shift with Sam Baker

Naga munchetty on her 30 year battle to get her painful periods taken seriously

The Shift with Sam Baker

Sam Baker Ltd

Society & Culture, Health & Fitness, Personal Journals

4.8525 Ratings

🗓️ 6 May 2025

⏱️ 61 minutes

🧾️ Download transcript

Summary

To launch season 17 (season 17! I know!) I have a very special guest. Back in 2023, British journalist and BBC breakfast and radio 5 live presenter Naga Munchetty hit the headlines when she spoke out about having been diagnosed with a gynaecological condition called adenomyosis. When I heard the clip I did a double-take because I too have adenomyosis, and, like Naga, it took me well over two decades to get diagnosed. But also I hadn’t heard of it before I was diagnosed and had never heard of anyone else who had it. (I wrote about it at the time – you can read it here.) I was far from the only one. Naga was overwhelmed by the avalanche, literally thousands of women sharing their stories of lifelong pain, bleeding and having their concerns dismissed, ignored and belittled. Of being told the way they were having to live their lives was just “normal”. Naga was shocked. She was furious. She was determined to do something about it. To help women advocate for themselves. And the result is her new book, It’s Probably Nothing - which let’s face it is a phrase most of us have heard over and over again. Naga and I talked all things gynaecological - from painful periods to bleeding buckets - choosing to be child-free and why women’s sexual wellbeing is so often overlooked. Women’s health still isn’t taken seriously and Naga Munchetty has plans to do something about that!  * You can buy all the books mentioned in this podcast at ⁠The Shift bookshop on Bookshop.org⁠, including It's Probably Nothing by Naga Munchetty as well as the book that inspired this podcast, The Shift: how I lost and found myself after 40 - and you can too, by me. * If you enjoyed this episode and you fancy buying me a coffee, pop over to my page on ⁠buymeacoffee.com⁠. • And if you'd like to support the work that goes into making this podcast and get a weekly newsletter plus loads more content including exclusive transcripts of the podcast, why not join The Shift community, come and have a look around at ⁠www.theshiftwithsambaker.substack.com⁠ • The Shift (on life after 40) with Sam Baker is created and hosted by Sam Baker and edited by Juliette Nicholls at Pineapple Production. If you enjoyed this podcast, please rate/review/follow as it really does help other people find us. And let me know what you think on twitter @sambaker or instagram @theothersambaker Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Transcript

Click on a timestamp to play from that location

0:00.0

Jamie Lang and Sophie Haboo have arrived on Disney Plus.

0:04.5

We're having a baby.

0:05.5

We're having a baby.

0:07.2

I've always wanted to be mom.

0:09.4

And we're bringing you on our journey through everything.

0:12.4

I have no idea what we're doing.

0:13.6

Thank you. I have more of an idea.

0:15.6

I think of it like a Tamagocchi.

0:17.8

At the end of all of this...

0:20.0

We're going to have a little baby. Raising Chelsea, a Hulu

0:23.7

original series streaming exclusively on Disney Plus. 18 plus subscription required T's and T supply.

0:34.7

Hello and welcome to The Shift, the podcast that aims to tell the no-holds-bar truth about being a woman post-40, created and hosted by me, writer and broadcaster, Sam Baker.

0:45.9

To launch season 17, I have a very special guest.

0:50.6

Back in 2023, British journalist and BBC Breakfast and Radio 5 live presenter Naga Manchetti

0:56.9

hit the headlines when she spoke out about having been diagnosed with a gynecological

1:01.9

condition called adenomyosis. When I heard the clip, I did a double take because I too have

1:09.3

adenomiosis and like Naga, it took me over two

1:13.4

decades to get diagnosed. But also, until that diagnosis, I hadn't heard of it. And I'd never

1:21.2

heard of anyone else who had it. I wrote about it at the time and I'll put a link in the show

1:26.1

notes if you want to read it.

1:30.0

I was far from the only one.

1:37.6

Naga was overwhelmed by literally thousands of women sharing their stories of lifelong pain,

...

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