Katherine Ryan has shared her heartbreaking miscarriage story and called for young women to receive better education on this incredibly painful life experience.
The comedian and presenter said miscarriage "needs to be on the curriculum" and pointed out that "girls need to know that you can have this secret, silent miscarriage" without necessarily realising it at the time.
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"So I was having a scan, and was then told I needed an internal scan, and I thought 'something's weird', but by now the doctor had turned the screen to herself so I couldn't see it and I just knew something was wrong," she recalled.
"The doctor said 'oh I'm sorry, we would expect to see a heartbeat but we don't, and we're going to have to have a very different conversation here', and then I thought 'well that's done'".
Ryan admitted she was blindsided by what had happened, saying: "I'm 36, I thought I was very well-versed on women's issues. I genuinely didn't know that a miscarriage can happen in this way."
Ryan, who has a 10-year-old daughter, Violet, and entered into a civil partnership with her childhood sweetheart Bobby Kootstra last year, also spoke openly about how the miscarriage affected her mental health.
“I know it can be a very lonely experience, and it’s shrouded in all this embarrassment. I felt embarrassed and shameful, not that I had the loss, but I felt embarrassed for getting excited before the loss," she told Whitmore.
She also said that following her miscarriage she "felt like a walking tomb" and explained that her distress was magnified because her body continued to carry the embryo for another month.
"It's crazy, they don't teach us this in school," she added.
Following the interview, the Department of Education told the BBC that new Relationships and Sex Education due to be introduced in schools this September will "ensure that secondary aged pupils will be taught the facts in relation to pregnancy, including miscarriage".
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If you've been affected by miscarriage, molar pregnancy or ectopic pregnancy, help is available from The Miscarriage Association. You can call their helpline from Monday to Friday, 9am to 4pm, on 01924 200 799.
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