Ovulation Pain is Not Normal

One of the signs of ovulation is pain. In the medical world this is explained by the leakage of fluid and blood into the abdominal cavity from the ovary as it swells during ovulation.

This, however, should not cause a tremendous amount of pain, more like an irritation.

Pain is a signal from your body that something is wrong.

That means it’s NOT normal to have intense or sharp pain during ovulation. But why does it happen?

One of the biggest reasons is issues in your tissues.

The type of issues may be:

• Scar tissue

• Fascial restrictions

• Muscle tension

Let me paint you a picture. Leading up to ovulation, the eggs within your ovary grow. During ovulation, one egg is then released into the fallopian tube. Now imagine if the ovary that is swelling in size is unable to expand because of tight muscle or fascial restrictions preventing it’s growth. Or scar tissue attached to the ovary or near by gets pulled as the ovary stretches.

Any time irritated tissue is aggravated, pain receptors will be triggered. This is what happens when ovulation pain is felt.

Think of a time when you stretched a tight muscle and it was more rather uncomfortable and if you’d pushed it, probably painful.

If one of your signs of ovulation is an intense or sharp pain, what can you do to eliminate the issues in your tissues?

It takes a holistic approach to alleviate ovulation pain including:

• Proper hydration - you want to make sure your tissues are well hydrated to promote good elasticity

• A diet that includes proper building blocks for tissue healing - including collagen, protein, Vits C & A, Zinc & carbohydrates

  • See a nutritionist or Naturopathic Doctor for guidance

• Body work - you want to improve circulation to the area to improve tissue hydration, remove built up toxins that can cause inflammation (this irritated tissue), and work directly on the tissues that are adhered, restricted or tight. This may include:

  • scar massage, myofascial release, visceral mobilization, & abdominal massage

• Exercise - when used properly reduces chronic inflammation, flushes out toxins, improve circulation, lengthens tight tissues and strengthens tissues that need to add support. Sometimes your body creates scarring or restrictions to provide a scaffolding to an injury and there are times when the the scarring or restrictions will continue to do the work of the muscles, because the surrounding musculature is not providing the necessary structural support. So to ensure the body can fully heal, adding an exercise component can provide long term benefit.

• Mind-body connection - the intensity of pain is also how your brain perceives the painful stimulus. Using strategies , like breathing exercises, acupuncture, and chiropractic may help to disrupt any over reaction of the signal.

If you are trying to conceive, just think how these same issues could onflict with hormone balance, uterus position, implantation and sustaining the pregnancy.

If you are pregnant, consider how these same issues could conflict with your growing uterus, baby position, digestion and birth.

If you are postpartum, consider how these same issues could conflict with healing after birth and the return of your period.

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