Medical Questions » Female Problems Questions » Question No. 397
| Question: | I have terrible period pain, but every two weeks when I am both menstruating and ovulating! It seems to be more pronounced on the right side. What can I do? |
| Answer: | You are extraordinarily unlucky to be suffering from both forms of regular gynaecological pain—uterine cramps and mittelschmerz.
When your periods come every month, the thick muscle of the uterus contracts to squeeze out the old uterine lining as blood mixed with cells. In some women, the uterus contracts too much, goes into spasm and causes severe pain, in much the same way that a leg muscle can go into cramp and cause pain.
In the middle of each month, a small cyst that contains a microscopic egg reaches the surface of a woman' s ovary, ruptures, and releases the egg and a small amount of fluid. If the woman produces eggs in a large cyst instead of a small one, excessive amounts of fluid will be released at ovulation when the cyst ruptures. The fluid is irritant to the lining of the pelvis, and so pain (called mittelschmerz) results.
Often one ovary is more active than the other, and in your case the right ovary is producing more eggs than the left.
Most women experience uterine cramps with periods, or mittelschmerz with ovulation at some time of their life, but when it occurs regularly, the problem becomes distressing.
If you are not trying to fall pregnant, the simple way to treat your two problems is to take the contraceptive pill, which has the double benefit of stopping ovulation (and thus mittelschmerz), and of significantly reducing the loss at period times, thus reducing uterine cramps.
Period cramps can also be reduced by taking medication such as Ponstan or ibuprofen, but there is no other easy way to stop ovulation pain.
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