When Sue Perkins was diagnosed with a brain tumour, she was dealt a second blow when she was told that her treatment would leave her unable to have children.

Now, in an extract from her new memoir Spectacles, published in last week’s Sunday Times, Perkins admits the news was all the more difficult to swallow due to homophobic remarks made by the consultant.

Perkins, who is in a long-term relationship with TV presenter/producer Anna Richardson, told her fertility consultant that she was gay. “Oh, OK. Well that makes it easier,” the consultant is reported to have replied. “You’re infertile. You can’t have kids.”

Afterwards, Perkins reflected in her memoir: “Does not a lesbian have a fallopian tube? Am I not human, and [am] I not somebody who could be a lovely, wonderful mother?” she wrote.

The 45-year-old, who has lived with the benign brain tumour for eight years, has come to terms with the fact that she may not have a family.

She said, “It really 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.

“It’s just not going to happen, it’s not going to ever be part of my life. And although I never yearned to physically have my own child, it felt like bereavement.”

Spectacles will be published in Ireland next month, and for now, Perkins is riding high as one of the Great British Bake Off’s presenters. The show has proved a ratings his both here and in the UK.