Painful Menstrual Cramps and How to Reduce the Pain?

Menstrual cramps and Reduce Pain, Menstrual cramps are experienced by women who are in their menstrual period. These cramps cause pain in the belly and pelvic areas. The pain that these menstrual cramps cause can range from meek to severe depending on the menstrual period, the intensity of the pain determines whether the woman may continue daily activities or not.

A mild menstrual cramp is of a very short duration and hardly painful and noticeable, on the other hand, a severe menstrual cramp may last for several days and the intense pain does not allow the woman undergoing the cramp to carry on with day to day activities. According to surveys and statistics, menstrual cramps are more common in adolescent girls whereas fifty percent of adult women report to having experienced painful menstrual cramps out of which fifteen percent said they were experiencing extreme pain.

Menstrual cramps build over a period of time. Every month the inner lining of the uterus is formed in wait for a possible pregnancy, however, after ovulation, if the egg is not fertilized by a sperm cell, the lining becomes useless. Gradually, the woman’s estrogen and progesterone levels fall, this causes the uterus lining to swell and eventually shed in the form of menstruation flow, finally replaced by new lining the following month. When the uterus lining is being shed, molecules called prostaglandins are released and these cause the muscles of the uterus to contract, restricting blood supply to the endometrium. The contracted muscles do not allow oxygen to pass through to the endometrium that eventually dies. The contracted uterus muscles then push the dead endometrial tissue out of the vagina, causing menstrual pain and cramps. This pain’s degree may become concentrated if there are clots or pieces of dead tissue from the uterus lining that need to pass through the cervix, even more so if the woman’s cervical canal is narrow.

 
There are factors that influence the intensity of the menstrual cramp; a narrow cervical canal restricts the menstrual flow, causing more pain. Other factors include the backward tilting of the uterus which is called a retroverteduterus; lack of proper exercise is also an accepted cause for menstrual cramps.
Fortunately, menstrual cramps have become quite common and a variety oftreatments have been discovered to ease the pain. It is seen that an adequate amount of rest and sleep combined with a well structures exercise plan, tremendously reduces the pain of menstrual cramps and also lowers the frequency of them occurring. Other than that, using a heating pad on the abdominal area relieves pain and reduces congestion of the muscles. For some women yoga and a good massage for the lower abdomen reduces the pain considerably. Many women also find that sufficient orgasmic sexual activity brings some relief. Mild cramps can be remedied by taking dosage of certain medicines like aspirin and acetaminophen combined with a diuretic. Women should begin the utilization of any one of these cures for their menstrual cramps before the pain becomes too severe to control and daily activities are forced to be reduced.