Katherine Ryan says miscarriage made her feel ‘really embarrassed and shameful’

‘I think it needs to be on the curriculum, I think girls need to know that you can have this secret, silent miscarriage,’ says comedian

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Katherine Ryan has opened up about having a miscarriage in February, which she said made her feel “embarrassed and shameful”.

Speaking on Laura Whitmore’s Castaway podcast, the Canadian comedian explained that she had been 10 weeks pregnant.

“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,” Ryan 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’.

The comedian, who has one daughter with an ex-partner, went on to explain how she didn’t tell anyone about the miscarriage.

“I think I was really embarrassed, I don’t want anyone to see when I’m upset, so I was happy, smiley, she must have thought who is this psycho,” Ryan told Whitmore.

Ryan said she found the following weeks particularly tough.

“Basically my mind knew I had lost the baby, my body just would not recognise it had lost this baby.

“So three weeks passed and I tried the medical management three times, and it didn’t work. That was was the hardest part of it – remaining pregnant with a deceased embryo for that long.”

Ryan described the experience as “so grim” and that women should be taught about miscarriages in schools.

“I think it needs to be on the curriculum, I think girls need to know that you can have this secret, silent miscarriage,” she said.