I just turned 49 years old and am definitely in perimenopause. So far the symptoms haven’t been too bad. . .an occasional bout of night sweats, slight irregularity in my cycle, lighter flow, increased moodiness/intenseness, but nothing that’s been unmanageable. This time, though, I experienced a different (intense) sensation and I’m wondering if anyone else has experienced the same thing. I’m not seeking medical advice, simply a sharing of your personal experience.
I’m no stranger to how cramps feel as I have some level of cramping each month ever since I began. As I got older, I also became more aware of ovarian pain when I ovulated. This doesn’t occur every month, but it’s not unusual for me to feel it for a bit.
This month, I was two weeks late for my period which put me about time to ovulate. Then I felt this SHARP, PIERCING pain in my lower, left abdomen. It wasn’t constant, but would intermittently force me to grab my lower side (around my pelvic bone and press firmly, often bending over. Sometimes the pain would shoot across to my midsection or even upward, but mostly it was centered around the lower left quadrant of my abdomen. Then it would calm down and I wouldn’t feel the pain for awhile. This went on for two days!
Now (day three) I am feeling better, only a couple of bouts of the pain of reduced intensity. Then it appeared that “Aunt Flo” had arrived. BUT, here it is a couple of hours later and it now appears that there’s no Aunt Flo after all. I suppose that was “spotting”, though my mind envisioned it differently somehow. Also, the pain seems to be gone (I hope).
My question is about the pain I have felt. Have any of you experienced this? I’m due for my annual check-up here in the next couple of months, so will definitely discuss it with my doctor, but I am curious to hear from others.
Same age as you, similar symptoms, but I have never experienced pain like you describe. I wonder if it might be some sort of ovarian cyst going on. Might not be a bad idea to phone the doctor and see if they’d like to see you sooner.
That’s a good thought, Mama Zappa. The pain returned last night and continues today. It’s not as intense, but it certainly isn’t comfortable. I’ll call today and make an appointment.
I hate to use the p-word, but is there any way at all you could be pregnant? Sounds like an ectopic pregnancy might present. Granted, generally the pain from that isn’t so sharp, but…
If you’ve been living a life the Pope would approve of, then never mind; a cyst is more likely. But if there’s any chance at all, an ER visit would not be amiss.
Also a good thought, WhyNot, but little to no chance of being pregnant. My husband had a vasectomy a few years ago, and as far as I know I haven’t strayed
Sounds exactly like my cysts did. Since I only had them on one side, they’d go off like that when I ovulated on that side. They haven’t bothered me much for a few years, but at 46, I’ve launched into perimenopause and have noticed a little pain kicking up again. The cycsts I had/have are the fluid-filled sort - an occasional inconvenience but not much more unless one gets broken (usually during sex), then it’s pain-o-rama for a few hours.
I think you are right, Mrs Cake. Ever since Mama Zappa mentioned cysts as a possibility, I’ve been reading up on them. I’m beginning to believe what I am/was feeling was caused by a cyst of some sort. I didn’t know there were so many different kinds, so it has been a bit of an education. But, a bursting cyst seems to have the potential to create the kind of pain I was feeling. I’m a little concerned about the length of time I was feeling the pain, though intermittent, but I suppose a “violent” act like that happening in the body can create ongoing, yet diminishing pain or tenderness. I’ll discuss these sorts of details with my doctor, but from what I’ve been reading, they often go a wait and see route if they don’t find anything unusual during the initial common exam.
I tells ya, it is sooooo much fun being a woman sometimes! :dubious:
So here’s a question - when I was younger, occasionally when I would sneeze, I would get a sudden, terrible sharp pain in my ovary area. Once it happened when I jumped up to answer the phone. The pain didn’t last more than a minute or so.
I always half-way suspected they were some kind of cyst, since that runs in my family. And I was at the age when I didn’t go to doctors. I have since been probed, and they have found nothing (although I never mentioned the sharp pains, since they were in the past).
Hmmm…maybe I was right all along. Who needs doctors!
47 years old and also in peri-menopause. I, too, experienced exactly the pain you describe about a month or so ago. It was really sharp and really intense. I said to my husband that if it was on the right side I’d be convinced my appendix had burst. It came and went over the course of a couple of days, then disappeared and never came back again.
This, by the way, is the opposite side that I always feel myself ovulate (my uterus is inverted (leaning backwards) and I’m told that my left ovary is “protected” by my lower intestines and my right ovary is kind of swinging around out there unprotected, so I can more easily feel when I ovulate from the right ovary), and it also felt much more intense and lasted much longer. But like I said, it hasn’t recurred, so I never had a doctor check it out to know what caused it.
I’d have immediately said cysts, since I think that’s why I’m getting the right side, alternate monthly pains again despite having Depo Shots for almost two years (I’m 43). I used to notice them a lot when I was younger - hard to miss when they cause you to double over and crack your skull on the desk! - they faded into the general all over, all the time pain that caused me to go onto Depo in the first place.
But yesterday, I mentioned them to a medically trained friend who said: ‘Or, if not cysts, you could be staring perimenopause.’
I’m not making any claims till I’ve seen my doctor.
I’m NOT in perimenopause, and DON’T have cysts, and I get that pain at times, too. Had it just a week or two ago, actually, for about a day. I’ve always assumed could be related to ovulation, as it’s always on the right side.
