If you are one of the many women who suffer with menstrual cramps every month, you are not alone. For some women the situation is so severe that their normal routines are disrupted. Find out why some of us suffer more than others, and what can be done to get relief.
What is Menstruation?
Every month, in order to create a nourishing environment for a fertilized
egg, the inner lining of a woman’s uterus (the endometrium) thickens. If
the egg released from the ovary is fertilized by a sperm, it implants in the
uterus lining (endometrial tissue). The unfertilized egg will
pass through the uterus and out of the body; the woman’s estrogen and
progesterone levels decline, and the uterus lining swells up and dies. Menstruation
(also known as the “period”) is the body’s expulsion of the useless
lining.
Menstrual Cramps
Everyone woman knows what a menstrual cramp is and almost every man has
heard of them. It may come as a surprise to many that menstrual cramps have
another name. The medical term for these abdominal and pelvic pains is “dysmenorrhea”.
More than 50% of women are affected each month by a certain degree of
dysmenorrhea, and 15% of those women are experiencing severe cramping.
Isn’t this PMS?
No, the discomfort associated with premenstrual syndrome is different
and occurs before the actual expulsion of the uterus lining, although it may
seem to the woman that they are the same if they are experienced in one
continual process.
Menstrual cramps are very similar to the ones a woman has during an induced
labor and occur when the uterus contracts (to help expel the lining). If
there are clots or bloody tissues passing through the cervix, the cramping is
intensified. Women who experience menstrual cramps have 5-13 times more prostaglandin
(a molecular compound found in the lining of the uterus) in their blood than
women who do not. Prostaglandin (PGF2alpha) is given to women to induce
labor.