Lower abdominal pain during pregnancy

Lower abdominal pain during pregnancy

With an object to identify the locations of the suffering abdominal organs with a fair degree of preciseness, the medical professionals speak in terms of the abdominal quadrants, devised by drawing an imaginary horizontal and vertical line through navel, taken as center. This helps the medical professionals to understand and pin point conditions like lower abdominal pain in pregnancy. Some patients do not have a fair idea of the abdominal cavity and its contents. They describe all the abdominal pains as stomach ache to the utter confusion of the health care service providers and it is in this situation that the 4-quadrants map of abdomen comes to help. Mild abdominal pain during pregnancy is a usual experience, causing discomfort especially to the first time expecting mothers.

Ectopic pregnancy

Severe pain in lower abdomen of the pregnant women is not the routine discomfort and should not be taken lightly, particularly if it is associated with fever, blood in stools, joints pain and unplanned weight loss. If the condition is followed by bleeding or urinary discoloration, the patient should be immediately taken to emergency as it may be most likely due to ‘Ectopic Pregnancy’. Normally the fertilized egg passes through Fallopian tube and attaches itself and grows in the womb. Sometimes however the Fallopian tube is obstructed and does not allow the fertilized egg a passage to the womb and the fertilized egg attaches to the walls of Fallopian tube and starts growing there. The condition is known as Ectopic pregnancy, causes lower abdominal pain during pregnancy.

Crohn's disease

Pain in the right side of lower abdomen in pregnant women may indicate Crohn's disease; which is a disease of gastro intestinal tract and may affect any part of the whole digestive system starting from mouth to the end of the digestive system. It is an inflammatory condition causing an urge to empty intestines frequently therefore may resemble diarrhea. It may be a hereditary disease as well.

Appendicitis

Severe pain in the right lower abdominal quadrant, starting from the immediate vicinity of the navel and moving towards the right side of lower abdomen after a few hours, is indicative of appendicitis. Appendicitis is a vestigial product of evolution in human beings. Since its infection and bursting may be dangerous, it is normally removed through surgery once the trouble is diagnosed.
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Peritonitis

Severe and sharp pain in the lower left quadrant of the abdomen, during pregnancy, especially when you feel feverish, chill and nauseating, may be due to peritonitis. The condition is caused due to the formation of pus between peritoneum and abdominal wall. Peritoneum is an internal thin covering of abdominal wall other abdominal organs. The patient feels too tender to even touch on the belly. Since Peritonitis is a life threatening condition, immediate medical assistance should be required.

Other Pregnancy related abdominal pain

Sometimes pregnant women experience abdominal pain even while all the things have been found normal on examination. This may be due to the stretching of ligaments in the first trimester of pregnancy.