Period cramps feel like a dull aching sensation in your lower abdomen. Pain that’s severe enough to prevent you from working or carrying out routine tasks or is accompanied by infertility or pain during sex might indicate endometriosis.

Is Your Period Pain Normal or Endometriosis?

Women have grown up hearing “period pain is normal”. Uterine contraction during periods can cause cramps, which can be mild to moderate. Severe, debilitating cramps that affect your work and life may signal underlying medical conditions, such as endometriosis. Understanding the difference between normal period cramps and endometriosis is crucial so that you know when you need to visit a gynecologist in Thane instead of just bearing the pain. 

What’s Normal Period Pain?

As mentioned above, menstrual cramps occur when your uterus contracts to shed the thickened lining. This causes cramps, which typically occur a day or two before your period or on days 1 and 2 of your period. Women describe this pain as a dull, aching sensation in their lower abdomen, which sometimes radiates to the thighs or lower back. 

A normal period pain is often manageable with rest, painkillers, and a hot water bag massage. While it’s normal to feel like spending your day curled up in bed, the pain isn’t severe enough to keep you from working or functioning normally.

When Period Pain Indicates Endometriosis 

Let’s first understand what endometriosis is. 

Your uterine lining builds up every month to prepare for a possible pregnancy. And then sheds if conception doesn’t occur. Now, endometriosis is when the uterine lining grows in other parts of your pelvis, such as on the ovaries, fallopian tubes, and around the uterus. It acts like the endometrial tissue, i.e., it sheds and bleeds, but it has nowhere to go. This causes inflammation and severe pain.

Symptoms of endometriosis are unpredictable. Some with minimal tissue growth experience extreme, unbearable pain, while others with widespread endometrial growth may experience no or fewer symptoms, which hardly point to endometriosis. That’s the reason why the diagnosis is often delayed.

Symptoms to Watch Out for

These signs will help you know whether you need endometriosis treatment in Thane.

• Severe Pain During Periods: While period cramps could be normal, extreme pain that makes it difficult to carry out your routine tasks or you often find yourself scheduling your work and all plans around your menstrual cycle, it may not be normal. 
• Pain Outside Your Menstrual Cycle: Pelvic pain that begins much before your period or persists after your menstrual cycle might be much more than period cramps. 
• Pain During Sex: Painful sexual intercourse is another sign of endometriosis. It occurs because endometrial tissue might grow beneath the uterus, causing pain with deep penetration. Besides, endometriosis leads to inflammation in your pelvis. The already sensitive tissues might hurt more when they are pressed. 
• Infertility: Endometriosis can cause infertility depending on its severity and location. For example, the endometrial tissue near the fallopian tubes or ovaries can block the path for the sperm to swim toward the egg. Besides, it can cause scarring and inflammation, both of which can affect your fertility. 

If your periods feel unusually painful or you have to take days off from work, it is time to get checked. Even more so if you have the above symptoms.