Surely more than once you have found yourself in this situation: your ovaries hurt and you think that your period is going to come at any moment. It is a normal situation that is repeated in the daily life of many women. By default, it leads us to think about the consequence: menstruation. 
However, there are women who find themselves in another situation more often than we think: ovarian pain without having their period on their calendar in the next few days or having recently passed it. Can your ovaries hurt without having to see if your period is going to go down or not? For what is this? I have to worry? When should I see a doctor? In this article we explain everything in detail.
What happens if my ovaries hurt without my period?
- The first thing to do if this question crosses your mind is to stay calm and be realistic. The most common pain when we refer to the ovaries is the one that is caused because we are ovulating or our period is going to drop, but sometimes we think that it is not due to that. This pain is known as intermenstrual pain, and is characterized by a throbbing pain in the lower abdomen that lasts from half an hour to 48 hours. It can translate into colic, with its corresponding diarrhea, or it can be located in the lower back on one side (corresponding to the ovary from which we are ovulating) or in the central area of the lower abdomen.
- Another symptom that can help identify if the pain is due to the drop in menstruation is increased vaginal discharge, which coincides with the time of ovulation and swelling or pain in the chest.
- Why does it hurt us if the rule doesn’t have to lower us? The first thing you should know is that ovulation does not occur at the time when your period is going to come down, but about 15 days after the last period (although it depends a lot on the menstrual cycle of each woman). Hence, the question of many women is why their ovaries hurt if their period has not yet come down. Good, because the rule will go down in about 10-14 days and the body is preparing for that.
- This pain is also a positive symptom if we are trying to get pregnant since the body tells us that it is preparing to expel an egg and it is the perfect time to try it.
- So the best thing you can do if you find yourself in a situation where your ovaries hurt (and you don’t associate it with your period) is, first of all, download a menstrual calendar that calculates the days you are going to ovulate and your menstrual cycle. It is possible that with their help you discover that the days that you have pain coincide around those that you are going to ovulate (even if you are in the middle of the month and you do not have to lower your period).
Other reasons why my ovaries can hurt
There are many other reasons why your ovaries can hurt, all of them equally important to which you have to pay special attention. Although the main reason is ovulation that we have just explained a few lines above, among other causes we can highlight the following:
Could you be pregnant?
It seems that for some women it is normal to experience ovarian pain a few days after conception. Therefore, if you are trying to get pregnant or think you might be, ovarian pain could be one of the main symptoms. It usually appears at the beginning of pregnancy, but what is the reason? Very simple: the uterus prepares itself to develop the embryo correctly. This process is when implantation begins and the fertilized egg attaches to the wall of the uterus. Be careful here, because implantation bleeding can be confused with your period, and for this reason it is best to see a doctor if you have certain suspicions of pregnancy.
Sexually Transmitted Disease
Pelvic inflammatory disease is an infection that can be located in the ovaries, uterus, or fallopian tubes and can cause chronic pain. It usually comes from not treating two sexually transmitted diseases: chlamydia and gonorrhea. This pelvic disease usually presents different symptoms that you must attend to know if you are really suffering from this pathology. Ovarian pain is one of those symptoms but, in addition, there are usually fevers, pain during intercourse, an unpleasant vaginal odor (as in most STDs and vaginal infections) and periods are usually heavy and painful.
Tumors
They are usually rare cases but some tumors, both benign and malignant, usually cause ailments like these. That is why it is important that you go to your gynecological check-ups regularly and that if you notice pain, observe why it usually occurs and contact your doctor if you have any doubts.
Menopause
When the woman begins at the end of her fertile stage, what is known as the menopause, great and important physical changes take place in her. Throughout the menopause, ovulation is irregular and menstruation does not occur every month, but tends to be spaced out over time. This may be the reason why ovarian pain caused by ovulation is somewhat more difficult to identify. We do not follow a pattern, therefore, if our ovaries hurt, we cannot find out what the reason might be. It is important that you identify if you are entering this stage with other symptoms (hot flashes, insomnia…) and that you keep your gynecological check-ups up to date.
When do I have to worry and go to the doctor?
As we have been saying throughout the entire article, it is important that you pay attention to whether this pain, even if it is located outside the periods in which your period is due, is caused precisely by your ovulation. It does not matter if you have just passed your period, your menstrual cycle may be shorter than that of other people and, after a few days, you are ovulating again.
Having this controlled and having observed that they occur frequently, with enough intensity or that they are located outside of those periods, it is advisable to see a doctor, as it could be a symptom of some pathology or circumstance such as the ones we have told you about above. However, most of them are accompanied by other symptoms.
So, it is important to see your doctor when:
- The pains start to get more intense.
- They begin to lengthen in time.
- They do not coincide with days of ovulation or period.
- Let’s notice a delay in the rule. It does not drop us around the days that it is scheduled to drop us.
- We have much more discharge, it has changed color or has an unpleasant odor.
- We are or suspect that we may be entering menopause.
- We notice that something happens to our body. If we fall into being a hypochondriac, our body is wise and knows when to send us signals. listen to him
