The Great British Bake Off co-host Sue Perkins was told it was 'easier' to be gay and infertile

The Great British Bake Off co-host Sue Perkins has revealed she was told by a doctor it was "easier" for her to learn she is infertile because she is a lesbian.

The TV presenter and comedienne, 45, recently announced she was diagnosed with a benign tumour in her pituitary gland eight years ago.

She said discovering the tumour would deny her the chance to give birth "felt like a bereavement", in an extract from her memoir, Spectacles, published in the Sunday Times.

Perkins also spoke out about the insensitive and homophobic way a brain tumour consultant gave her the heartbreaking diagnosis.

Asked by the medic if she had a husband or boyfriend, Perkins told her she was a lesbian.

The consultant replied: “Oh, OK. Well, that makes it easier. You’re infertile. You can’t have kids.”

Recounting the exchange, Perkins wrote: “Does not a lesbian have a fallopian tube? Am I not human, and [am] I not somebody who could be a lovely, wonderful mother?”

Perkins formally complained about the consultant a year later.

The TV presenter also underlined the impact of learning of the tumour, which she said still "screws up" her hormones despite being benign, in the extract shared with the newspaper.

“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. I can’t now have it as an out-of-sight, out-of-mind possibility, lurking," she said.