Pain during menstruation

Pain during menstruation bothers most women, but not all, which gives grounds to consider the presence of pain as a sign of some kind of disorder in the body. The menstrual cycle is always the body's preparation for pregnancy, so it is quite natural to assume how serious the hormonal changes are. After the egg remains unfertilized, all preparatory activities for pregnancy are cancelled and the body rejects excess mucous along with blood, calms down the riot of hormones and again rebuilds itself to everyday life.

There may be several reasons for painful periods. In order to establish the true one, it is necessary to conduct an examination, including the fact that the woman has given birth or not. The fact is that algomenorrhea is divided into two forms - primary and secondary. Primary is associated with the riot of prostaglandin hormones, and secondary occurs due to the presence of serious diseases that occur in women who have given birth or had abortions in their anamnesis.

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What causes period pain?

Some of the reasons why painful menstruation occurs have already been partially touched upon above, but the mechanism of pain development still remains unclear. The uterus, like any other organ, contains nerve fibers and many pain receptors in its walls. During menstruation, the muscular walls of the uterus begin to contract vigorously in order to expel from the cavity all unnecessary and superfluous things, including mucus, epithelial cells, clots, and so on. It is during such contractions that pain appears, indicating irritation of the nerve endings of the pain receptors.

In such cases, the pain will be aching, appearing a day or two before the onset of menstruation, intensifying on the day of the onset and gradually disappearing by the end of the second day, when uterine contractions will gradually decrease. Painful sensations during this period are not the only thing that darkens a woman's mood. Swelling of the mammary glands and increased sensitivity of the nipples can also be painful. Aching in the lower back and general malaise complete the picture.

Some note increased fatigue, headaches, irritability and sudden mood swings. All these manifestations can be called quite natural, they are caused by a temporary hormonal imbalance. After the menstruation stops, everything returns to its place.

However, the matter would not be so serious if everything was limited to pain or unpleasant pain symptoms. Most women experience severe attacks of pain a few days before their period, continuing to intensify in the first days of their onset. Such attacks can even be accompanied by loss of consciousness, especially in women with a low pain threshold. Nausea and vomiting, severe headaches lead to the fact that the general condition does not allow them to carry out their usual activities, and during their period, such women are forced to adhere to bed rest.

If pain is observed during menstruation, leading to the verge of loss of consciousness, it is necessary to look for the cause in a serious disease of the pelvic organs. These may be:

• endometriosis or endometritis;
• adhesions in the pelvic cavity or in the abdominal cavity;
• myomatous nodes and cystic formations;
• polyps;
• Intrauterine contraceptives.

Diagnostic measures

A visit to a gynecologist will allow you to make the most accurate diagnosis and identify the reason why such a natural process as menstruation is painful.

Doctors of gynecological departments use very effective diagnostic methods, in the first row of which it is worth noting laparoscopy. With the help of a laparoscope, under general anesthesia, the doctor penetrates directly into the pelvic cavity, through three small punctures in the abdominal wall, and can assess the condition of all organs with his own eyes, because the image is displayed on the monitor of medical equipment. In addition, it is possible not only to detect, but also, if possible, immediately eliminate the cause of the "malfunction".

Before recommending laparoscopy, the doctor will certainly prescribe an ultrasound examination procedure. In most cases, the information content of this method is more than sufficient to establish a correct diagnosis and additional instrumental diagnostic methods are not required.

In addition to ultrasound and laparoscopy, there are also methods of hysterosalpingography and diagnostic curettage of the uterine cavity, in order to obtain results of the analysis of the parietal endometrium.

In addition to instrumental diagnostic methods, a blood test is performed to clarify the indicators of all important hormones, general and clinical indicators.

After the diagnosis is made, treatment of the underlying disease begins, and at the same time the degree of manifestation of the pain syndrome is monitored. If the pain during menstruation before the start of treatment was more intense, and after the start of treatment and its completion, menstruation began to proceed less painfully, then the right path has been chosen.

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Preventive treatment

It is quite difficult to say how exactly the treatment of the underlying disease that caused the painful periods will proceed, because this is a purely individual matter. One can only assume that anti-inflammatory drugs will predominate among the medications, in the form of antibiotics or non-steroidal anti-inflammatory drugs, painkillers and antispasmodics, immunostimulants and hormonal drugs.

The choice of drugs, which in turn merge into a large number of pharmacological groups, allows you to select unusual combinations of drugs that individually have one effect, and when used together - another. The choice of a treatment algorithm directly depends on the situation, which is easiest for the attending physician to navigate, who has the data of all diagnostic studies before his eyes.

The following recommendations can be given with absolute certainty. Stick to a certain rhythm of life, choose the right and rational diet, not overloaded with fatty and heavy food, regularly do physical exercises that force the pelvic muscles to train, which in turn improves blood supply to the uterus and increases its nutrition.

It is enough to spend twenty minutes in the morning on exercises to ensure maximum flow of blood rich in oxygen to all organs, and squats and circular movements of the pelvis strengthen the work of the pelvic muscles, which is very useful for the uterus and ovaries.

Pain during menstruation will be less intense if you provide warmth to the lower abdomen. For this purpose, you can use either a classic heating pad or a simple plastic bottle from mineral water, which can be filled with plain warm water and placed on the lower abdomen.