Keltie Knight opens up about battle with rare blood disorder, 'mind-numbing fatigue' and hysterectomy: 'I was gaslit by doctors'

It took Canadian TV host Keltie Knight nearly a decade of navigating symptoms before finally receiving a life-changing diagnosis that led to a total hysterectomy. Knight, known for her work on "Entertainment Tonight" and more recently as a co-host of "E! News," struggled to find answers and have her symptoms taken seriously.

She began experiencing symptoms like fatigue, blurry vision, aching joints and debilitating menstrual cycles more than 10 years ago. "For the past decade, I have felt off," Knight, now 42, told Yahoo Canada. "I felt mind-numbing fatigue, my hair was falling out, my skin was weird and my eyesight was really blurry. I just didn't feel like I had any energy, any lust for life."

The fatigue was especially hard, leading her to sleep up to 16 to 18 hours a day at times. Knight initially attributed her symptoms to working too hard, a poor diet or simply aging. "Maybe you should just stop with the coffee," she would tell herself. "I got to the point where I was blaming myself."

Her health deteriorated further, with severe digestive issues, unexplained rashes and heavy, painful periods coming back every two weeks. Despite these symptoms, doctors dismissed her concerns.

"I was convinced that I had arthritis head to toe," she explained. "I lost the sight in my eye where I would be reading my teleprompter on a news show, and I had to memorize my script because the teleprompter would be so blurry."

Doctors repeatedly advised her to meditate, lower her stress levels and improve her diet. Knight's symptoms persisted. "As a woman, I was just taught to overlook them," she said, expressing frustration at being "gaslit by all the doctors."

As the years passed, Knight's symptoms got worse. "I finally got so ill about two years ago, where I almost had to quit my job," she recalled.

Diagnosis and 'emotional' surgery

At that point, Knight sought help from a homeopathic doctor. A 60-page blood panel revealed she had alarmingly low levels of ferritin (a blood protein that contains iron), indicating a form of anemia.

Subsequent tests with an oncologist confirmed that her ferritin levels were dangerously low, and iron infusions offered only temporary relief until she would bleed them out through her severe periods. Knight's team of healthcare professionals, including an oncologist, gynecologist and naturopath, finally made several diagnoses — microcytic anemia, perimenopausal symptoms and endometriosis.

Food allergy tests revealed she was allergic to bovine (cattle), an ingredient in the iron pills she was prescribed, which only exacerbated her symptoms.

The team realized her severe menstrual bleeding was preventing her from getting better, and so stopping her periods was the only way forward. After exploring other treatments such as birth control, progesterone pills and uterine ablation (which she wasn't eligible for because she has a heart-shaped uterus), Knight's doctors concluded that a total hysterectomy was the best option.

A total hysterectomy involves the surgical removal of the entire uterus and the cervix.

Initially, Knight felt relieved to have a solution. "I went into solution mode, and I was like, 'They're gonna fix me!'" she said. But as the surgery date approached, the emotions hit her hard. "It's your womanhood, it's the thing that makes you a woman."

Knight underwent a hysterectomy five weeks ago. In the weeks after, her mother and a team of nurses cared for her around the clock. "My mom came from Canada, lived with me for three weeks, and literally slept in my bed, fed me. I mean, I could do nothing," she recalled.

The recovery was tough, and it took an emotional toll. "I wasn't really prepared for the extent of the healing, the emotional component," she admitted.

Now, Knight said she "can see the sun shining. I feel like my I'm getting my body back."

Impact on career and future outlook

Despite her severe symptoms, Knight never let her health get in the way of her career, sometimes to her own detriment.

After suffering a miscarriage in 2017, she took only one day off before returning to work. "I was back to work the next morning wearing a diaper, having the miscarriage on the red carpet interviewing Chris Pratt at 'The Lego Movie,'" she recalled. "I would not allow these health things to get in the way of my career because I knew I was so lucky to be one of the chosen few people who ever get this level of success."

When she was named co-host of "E! News" just two weeks before the surgery, Knight worried her recovery would jeopardize her big career move.

"I literally got my dream job here in the States... and then was like, 'what if I take six months to get better?' I'm gonna lose this position that I've worked my entire career for. So it was a very emotional journey on top of the physical, which is womanhood in a nutshell, isn't it?" she said with a laugh.

But the team at "E! News" was supportive. "I was really lucky," she said, praising her executive producers John Pascarella and John Redmann, who she quoted saying: "We want you as the host, and we want you to be well. So what do you need?"

Knight's long-term health and outlook have already improved, but "there's such a lack of care or concern about women's health here in the U.S.," she noted. "Being an advocate for yourself and keeping track of your symptoms, keeping a folder, and going in fully educated and saying, 'I'm not leaving until you do this test or we get to the bottom of this,' is such an important piece of this."

Advocating for change and embracing life

Even as she suffered for years, Knight was ambitious and successful. Now, she's even more optimistic. "I've been a pretty badass woman while feeling ill all these years," she said. "So I"m kind of excited about the future and what I can do with my career."

But it was the simple pleasures that excite her the most. "I'm most excited about my real life," she said. "I'm excited to travel with my husband and not need to sleep all day in order to go out at night. I haven't had any sort of social life or extracurricular life in years."

Knight is also looking forward to become active again. "I want to get muscles. I want to be on a pilates reformer, I want to get a six-pack, I want to learn to surf," she said with enthusiasm.

With her ordeal behind her, the host is also eager to empower other women to take charge of their health. "We learn, as we grow up, that part of womanhood is feeling off and suffering," she said. "But I don’t believe that to be true. I don't think we all have to suffer through our entire lives. And it's OK to find the root cause of why you're suffering so that one day you don't have to suffer anymore."

After everything, it was clear that Knight was ready for a brighter future. "It's a white pants summer for Keltie Knight, and I'm very excited about that," she said with a laugh.

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