Vicky Pattison revealed the outrageous comment that a ‘gaslighting’ doctor made about her health struggles, which prompted ‘dark and intrusive thoughts’ as she appeared on Wednesday’s episode of Good Morning Britain.
The former Geordie Shore star, 38, and Health Secretary Wes Streeting, 43, sat in the ITV studio to chat to Susanna Reid and Ed Balls about the new women’s health strategy which has been put in place to stop medical misogyny.
Vicky has been very open about her struggles to get a diagnosis of premenstrual dysphoric disorder (PMDD), which took her five years to get.
According to charity Mind, PMDD ‘is a very severe form of premenstrual syndrome (PMS). It causes a range of emotional and physical symptoms every month during the week or two before your period.’
Talking about her own experience, Vicky said on the GMB sofa: ‘We called it medical misogyny.
Vicky Pattison revealed the outrageous comment that a ‘gaslighting’ doctor made about her health struggles, which prompted ‘dark and intrusive thoughts’ as she appeared on Wednesday’s episode of Good Morning Britain
The former Geordie Shore star, 38, and Health Secretary Wes Streeting , 43, sat in the ITV studio to chat to Susanna Reid and Ed Balls about the new women’s health strategy which has been put in place to stop medical misogyny
A shocked Susanna replied after she found out what she said: ‘You were told that explicitly?!’
‘It can fall under many umbrellas but I always felt that when I went to talk to any medical professional, any medical practitioner, that my pain, my feelings, my explanations of what I was going through was ultimately dismissed. I was gaslit.
‘I think that’s because, as a woman, there’s this idea that there’s a hysterical element to what you’re saying.
‘I was actually told if I wanted to someone to seriously advocate on my behalf, I should take my partner. And that way I would get the help I needed.’
A shocked Susanna replied: ‘You were told that explicitly?!’
Vicky nodded and continued: ‘Bring your partner next time. Because sometimes when you explain what’s going on, how you feel, you sound a bit hysterical.
‘I’d been suffering for five years.
‘Symptoms getting increasingly worse, increasingly debilitating, I was dealing with hopelessness, despair, anxiety, insomnia, exhaustion.
‘In my darker moments, dark intrusive thoughts.
‘No wonder I was becoming somewhat hysterical, after not being listened to for five years.
‘I was still told, “If you want someone to take you seriously, bring your partner”.’
Last month Vicky revealed she is ‘worried’ what sort of mother she will be due to suffering from PMDD as she opened up about starting a family with husband Ercan Ramadan.
The TV personality, 38, has shared her fertility journey with fans and candidly documented the process of freezing her eggs, which she started when she was 35.
Vicky said she wanted to take control of her fertility, and had the treatment which resulted in three embryos being frozen.’
But now the Strictly star has admitted she is ‘very concerned’ what kind of mum she will be as she has several days of the months where she is faced with ‘dark, intrusive thoughts and can’t regulate her emotions’.
Speaking to Heat magazine, she said: ‘It’s one of the things that adds to my growing apprehensions around being a mum. What type of parent will I be with PMDD?
‘For seven to 10 days of the month I’m incredibly short-tempered, impatient, and exhausted. I can’t regulate my emotions and I have dark, intrusive thoughts. It’s really debilitating.
‘You see yourself as being this fun mum who’s reading stories and baking f***ing sourdough but when I’m in the trenches of my PMDD fog, I can barely get out of bed.
‘I can’t articulate myself. I worry what type of mum that will make me – it’s a very real concern.’
Vicky has suffered with PMDD for years and often speaks about the severe symptoms it causes including depression and anxiety.
The NHS states that symptoms of PMDD are similar to PMS (premenstrual syndrome), but are much more intense and can have a much greater negative impact on your everyday life.
Symptoms can include headaches and joint and muscle pain, overeating and problems sleeping, feeling very anxious, angry, depressed or suicidal.
It comes after Vicky slammed doctors for deliberating adding to ‘hysteria and fear’ around women’s infertility by calling her eggs ‘geriatric’.
The reality star is fronting a documentary, Maybe Baby?, with Channel 4 in which viewers see her contemplating starting a family and the various paths to parenthood.
Vicky was told by her doctors she had geriatric eggs, and speaking to the Radio Times, she said: ‘It’s misogynistic language, and I think it’s deliberate, adding to the hysteria and fear.’
‘I feel passionately that egg freezing should be more affordable, and we should be more open about the process’.
‘Women deserve to have security and a backup plan.’
She appears on the show with her husband of two years, Ercan with the pair returning to TV after their 2024 reality show, My Big Fat Geordie Wedding.
The couple discuss whether they want a baby, and Vicky can be seen crying in the trailer as she admits, ‘As a woman you are conditioned to really want kids.’
Announcing the show to her followers on Instagram, she explained how she and her husband had been working for six months to follow their ‘record-breaking’ wedding show.
She added: ‘In this two-part special, we look at what our lives look like post-wedding- the pressure on women to have children, the different ways to be a family, we celebrate alternative routes to motherhood and the fertility issues that many women face.
‘In amongst this, we let you in to the chaos of our lives again- busy schedules, our friends, fluffy butts, our families, first years of marriage, our very candid feelings and fears about growing our family… and everything in between… and we are so excited to have you along for the ride!
‘Our hopes are that this show will encourage much-needed honest discourse around fertility, more understanding about people choosing different paths and ultimately help us all understand our options better, and I hope we’ve done this with sensitivity and grace.’
Last year, Vicky revealed she had visited her ‘little frozen family’ in her fertility clinic, as part of her new show. Writing on Instagram, she said: ‘I WENT TO VISIT OUR EMBRYOS!!!!’
In a 2025 interview with Women’s Health UK she admitted that she has a ‘huge question mark over motherhood’ and that the pressure to have a baby now that she is married is ‘suffocating’.
She explained that she had worked so hard for so long to get where she has career wise, that taking a break ‘scares her’.
‘I’m a huge advocate for egg freezing, although I’m saying that from a position of financial privilege,’ she said.
‘Women shouldn’t be beholden to this invisible timeline. We’re fed this narrative that we can have it all and do whatever we want, but it’s not necessarily true. In women’s lives, there has to be a lot of compromise involved.
‘I met Ercan when I was 31 and wanted to give our relationship breathing space…It’s been the best thing I’ve ever done. I felt really suffocated, on a kind of conveyor belt, and now I feel free.’
The former Geordie Shore star also said she and Ercan are ‘singing from the same song sheet’ about wanting more time to make up their minds about parenthood.
Also speaking on the Women’s Health Just as Well podcast with Gemma Atkinson and Claire Sanderson, Vicky explained: ‘My mum told me ‘If not having children is your trajectory, that’s fine,’ which I thought was powerful.
‘I think we’re coming around to the idea as a society that a woman doesn’t have to have children to be fulfilled – and, for me, there’s still a huge question mark over motherhood.
‘I’ve worked to finally get to a place where I’m proud of who I’m becoming, and the thought of taking a break… it scares me.’
Good Morning Britain airs weekdays from 6am on ITV1 and ITVX.
