Hello, I'm hoping to get some advice and feedback from any women who have suffered from menstrual cramping during intense exercise.
My daughter is a 15 year old high school athlete. She plays various sports including field hockey and lacrosse, in which she plays midfield and engages in long stretches of intense running similar to a triathlete's hard tempo run. She's in excellent shape and usually has great endurance. Every month or so, usually after about 5 minutes of intense running she gets a debilitating cramping sensation in her lower abdomen/pelvic area combined with nausea and has to leave the game or take a break from practice. She says the cramping also gives her the sensation of having to do a bowel movement even if she had a already had one just prior to the exercise. She then paces the sideline and after about 5-10 minutes of pacing can re-enter the game and the pain is gone. It may come up for a few days at a time but then goes away for several weeks. It has been happening for about a year or more.
Her pediatrician doesn't know what it is, but suggested that we have a sonogram. She had two sets of sonograms about 6 months apart. The first sonogram showed some ovarian cysts, and the pediatrician thought that may be the cause of the pain. He also predicted that the cysts were the type that would go away by themselves. The second sonogram showed that the cysts had gone away, but the cramping condition has continued. We thought that it was occurring mainly a few days before her period, but sometimes it happens the day she gets it or the day after. I'd say it usually occurs the week before her period to the day of. The good news is that the bouts of this pain aren't getting any more frequent and the intensity or duration of them is remaining constant, which makes her pediatrician feel it is probably not too serious. She doesn't normally have much cramping, so if she weren't exercising on a particular day she probably would not have any cramps. It's definitely triggered by the exercise and not something that would normally happen.
We haven't sent her to an OB/GYN yet, but that may be the next step.
Given that she intends to play sports in college and be a life-long athlete, we want to resolve this ASAP. So, I'm hoping some of you out there have had similar situations and can share some suggestions and advice. Feel free to send me a private message if you prefer. Many thanks.
My daughter is a 15 year old high school athlete. She plays various sports including field hockey and lacrosse, in which she plays midfield and engages in long stretches of intense running similar to a triathlete's hard tempo run. She's in excellent shape and usually has great endurance. Every month or so, usually after about 5 minutes of intense running she gets a debilitating cramping sensation in her lower abdomen/pelvic area combined with nausea and has to leave the game or take a break from practice. She says the cramping also gives her the sensation of having to do a bowel movement even if she had a already had one just prior to the exercise. She then paces the sideline and after about 5-10 minutes of pacing can re-enter the game and the pain is gone. It may come up for a few days at a time but then goes away for several weeks. It has been happening for about a year or more.
Her pediatrician doesn't know what it is, but suggested that we have a sonogram. She had two sets of sonograms about 6 months apart. The first sonogram showed some ovarian cysts, and the pediatrician thought that may be the cause of the pain. He also predicted that the cysts were the type that would go away by themselves. The second sonogram showed that the cysts had gone away, but the cramping condition has continued. We thought that it was occurring mainly a few days before her period, but sometimes it happens the day she gets it or the day after. I'd say it usually occurs the week before her period to the day of. The good news is that the bouts of this pain aren't getting any more frequent and the intensity or duration of them is remaining constant, which makes her pediatrician feel it is probably not too serious. She doesn't normally have much cramping, so if she weren't exercising on a particular day she probably would not have any cramps. It's definitely triggered by the exercise and not something that would normally happen.
We haven't sent her to an OB/GYN yet, but that may be the next step.
Given that she intends to play sports in college and be a life-long athlete, we want to resolve this ASAP. So, I'm hoping some of you out there have had similar situations and can share some suggestions and advice. Feel free to send me a private message if you prefer. Many thanks.