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no question, menstrual cramps can be painful. some people feel them more than others, but it’s entirely common because of your body’s physiology, according to the cleveland clinic . pain typically starts a couple days before your start menstruating or when the bleeding begins, and you usually feel it in your lower abdomen, thighs or back (or all three). you can also experience fatigue, nausea and diarrhea.
“the lining of the uterus builds up throughout our menstrual cycle as our hormones cycle throughout the average 28-day cycle,” says dr. nikita patel, a family physician at women’s college hospital in toronto , and lecturer and clinical teacher of medicine at the university of toronto.
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“then anywhere that lining is starts to cramp when the prostaglandins get released,” patel says, adding that fibroids can also prompt the uterus to boost contractions. “fibroids are non-cancerous muscle growths in the uterus wall, sometimes hanging in the uterus. and when they’re inside the body of the uterus, the body’s thinking, ‘ok, i need to shed the endometrial lining and everything that’s in this uterine cavity.’ sometimes it’s trying to push out a fibroid, but the fibroid is not going anywhere. and so those women can sometimes get heavier cramping or bleeding.”
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other conditions to be aware of include adenomyosis , where the endometrial tissue begins to grow into the muscular walls of the uterus, as well as pelvic inflammatory disease caused by sexually transmitted bacteria that infects your reproductive organs. much more rare is cervical stenosis that happens when the cervix opening is small enough to restrict menstrual flow and you end up with a painful increase of pressure within your uterus.
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