A woman was left peeing 40 times a day because of a chronic bladder condition.
Melissa Frost, 31, started getting severe pain after going to the toilet at age 16.
She started needing to pee almost twice an hour, 40 times a day, and was given antibiotics for a potential urinary tract infection (UTI) six times in eight months.
Melissa was diagnosed with bladder pain syndrome – a chronic condition characterized by pain in the lower tummy and back and needing to pee frequently – at age 16.
She spent the next nine years taking painkillers before she underwent an operation to have a bladder pacemaker fitted in July 2022.
The device interferes with signals between her bladder and her brain, so now she only feels the need to pee 15 times in 24 hours.
Melissa, who had been told it might be hard for her to have a baby, gave birth to her son, now two years old.
Melissa, a support worker from Bolton, Greater Manchester, said: “It was the worst pain I’ve ever experienced, worse than childbirth, I can’t even explain it.
“It would last for hours.
“I was weeing up to 40 times a day.”
Melissa initially struggled to get a diagnosis – and her pain was dismissed as UTIs.
She told Talk to the Press: “I was young and a lot of my internals were done by men, the whole experience was very traumatizing.
“But I got a consultant who is amazing and I still see her.”
As a teenager, she missed a lot of school and couldn’t go out as often as her friends.
Melissa said she couldn’t have sex because the pain was so bad.
At its worst, she would go to the toilet 30 times a day and ten at night.
She said: “I had a very supportive boyfriend, but it was really hard.
“I lost years of my life. It was heartbreaking.”
In July 2013, she was diagnosed after a cystoscopy – an examination where a camera was put inside her urethra – and a uroflowmetry test, which measures the volume of urine released per second.
But she was told the lining in her bladder was cracked and sore, like eczema.
Melissa said: “The urology team said it was one of the worst cases they’d seen.”
Medics discussed different options, such as a bladder transplant, deciding eventually to try the pacemaker.
She said it took a while to get the device as it was relatively new to the NHS, approved for use in 2004, and was costly.
The device, a little box implanted in her buttock, uses wires connected to nerves to block signals to her brain to allow her bladder to become full before needing to go to the bathroom.
Melissa doesn’t need to take painkillers anymore either.
Melissa trialed the device in November 2021 for two weeks, and it worked, so she had it fitted permanently in July 2022.
The device has a Bluetooth rechargeable battery, which she charges by pressing the charger against her buttock, that needs to be changed every 15 years.
She said: “It took a while to make a difference, then it was such a relief not to have the pain and urgency anymore.
“I had lost years of my life in pain and not able to do things.
“Sometimes I have to turn down the device because it sends funny sensations like tingling down my leg which is not nice.”
Melissa said medics told her it might be difficult for her to have children because pressure on her bladder might cause too much pain to go on with a pregnancy.
She said they felt a C-section might be necessary in case the birth dislodged her pacemaker when she was pushing.
But in September 2024, Melissa gave birth to her son, Rowen.
She said: “It’s very hard to be told at a young age that you might not be able to have children.
“I had such a successful and positive pregnancy.
“It didn’t seem real until I held him.
“It really was magical to have a baby of my own after everything I have been through.”
