Reality TV and Geordie Shore star Marnie Simpson has opened up about living with severe pain caused by a chronic UTI, and revealed the pain has taken her to her lowest point and even made her think she won't have a second child.
Speaking on Tuesday’s edition of Steph’s Packed Lunch on Channel 4, Marnie said: 'When I’ve been at my lowest, I’ve just thought there’s no point in even going on.
'There’s nothing more scary than being in a situation like this where you’re really ill, it’s restricting every aspect of your life, you’re in so much painand no doctor can help you. I get anxiety, it affects my work life.'
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Marnie was speaking to Doctor Javid Abdelmoneim as part of a recurring strand on Steph’s Packed Lunch, ‘Celebrity Surgery’, in which the show’s resident doctors help celebrity patients in their quest for better health.
In the conversation, Marnie described how she was aware of her painful bladder even while being interviewed: 'I can feel my bladder, yeah. I’ve got bladder awareness. [I have] an irritated burning feeling. It’s like a four out of 10 and when it’s really bad it will go to 10 out of 10 and that’s when I’m bedbound.'
Marnie has one son, 11-month-old Rox with partner Casey Johnson, but says she doesn't know if will ever have more children because of the condition.
'I want to have more kids, I don’t know if that will ever happen.' she said. 'I can’t. I think there’s only one thing worse than being in this pain and it’s being in this pain pregnant because the amount of stress you put your body through with a baby, I wouldn’t be able to.'
Marnie has been living with a chronic UTI for the past four years. She said: 'I’ve always suffered on and off with UTIs my whole life and then in 2016 I got one, and I took antibiotics and this time it just didn’t go.
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'I was going to loads of doctors, I was getting loads of checks and they were checking my urine, they were saying there’s nothing there, it’s fine.'
Doctor Cat Anderson, a specialist in women’s health and recurrent UTIs, tells Marnie and Doctor Javid: 'Some studies have shown the quality of life impact of having this disease is equivalent to crippling rheumatoid arthritis, terminal cancer or end-stage renal failure. That’s quite a shocker.'
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Asked by Doctor Javid why so many diagnoses are being missed, Doctor Cat said: 'You’ve got to ask yourself, is it something to do with it being women’s health…?'
Marnie added: 'It’s frustrating because if I’d been treated properly in the beginning, I wouldn’t be in this position now.'
While Marnie doesn't say she has interstitial cystitis, it's worth bearing in mind that 400,000 people in the UK have been diagnosed with interstitial cystitis (IC), a chronic and often disabling bladder condition. Also known as painful bladder syndrome, IC is poorly understood. Doctors aren’t exactly sure what causes it and unlike with regular cystitis, there’s no presence of an infection.