Luteal phase intense cramping pain

So much of what you have experienced resonates! Unfortunately I have a very similar experience to you.

Approximately 1-2 days post ovulation until my period begins I experience lower abdominal cramps, with regular additional lower back pain (both slightly to the left of my midline), and occasional radiating ache through my left thigh. I’ve had it for 5 years now, slowly getting more severe.

I was diagnosed with endometriosis via laparoscopic surgery, and after lesion removal I experienced no change to my pain. Post procedure I now additionally experience mild typical endometriosis symptoms.

I tracked my sleep and noticed I wake up at a regular time intervals, typically every hour (exactly). It’s exhausting getting such broken sleep for over a week each month.

I use to always described it as feeling like intense “trapped gas pain” but no digestive issues.
I have tried everything, from dietary alterations and increased water intake thinking it could be digestive, chiro/physio/massage/pelvic floor physio thinking it might be muscular or nerve related, contraception pills trialling hormonal influences, I even moved towns/homes thinking it could have environmental.

I am grateful I have found this post. I’ve never found anything that comes close to describing what I experience until now. I hope your experience changes shortly.

I want to trail on what you said and mention that I too have been experiencing a very similar pain. I have not gone to any doctors about it. But the symptoms you described match my experience almost exactly.

I’m also grateful to have found this post and to know I’m not alone.

Sounds like endometriosis try to get that ruled out

I have had similar pain since I was 15 (I'm now 30) and it's definitely getting worse.

What I find really confusing about my symptoms (that every doctor doesn't know what to do with) are:
1) my pain is during the same time, about 12-15 days before my period.
2) the pain is located in the UPPER abdomen right below my sternum and radiates to my mid back, usually causing a muscle spasm that outshines the abdominal pain.
3) The pain always happens in the afternoon/evening and lasts through the night. I resonate with your comment about how it happens after eating or with an empty stomach, but to specify, mine is always in the afternoon. It will usually only happen 1-2 days, always showing up in the afternoon/evening and then returning the same time the next day.
4) Laying down seems to make it worse so most nights when it's happening, I have to sleep sitting up.

I have gone to my gyno for endo, she said it couldn't be because it's too high in my abdomen. I've read that there are rare cases of stomach and diaphragm endo that I'm hoping to get ruled out by another gyno. I've gone to a gastro who said it's just high stomach acid, and though acid reducers do seem to help sometimes, half the time they're totally useless. At this point, I wonder if it could also be gallstones because a lot of those symptoms are spot on, though the regularity with the menstrual cycle doesn't seem quite on, but I'm going to get an ultra sound to rule those out as well.

Thanks for asking these questions, women's health is so wiiiiiiildy under studied so it's so hard to find what the heck is happening! Wishing you all the best on your journeys to health!

Pearl

It’s very interesting to hear other people discribing this issue, -I hope that it could help us figure out what is is.
Please wright it in here if you find cures or releafs.

I have had pain in my right ovary since i was a teenager (I am 31 now). My sister has similar pain and my mother did too when she was young.
For me it sometimes start already on day 7 of my cycle (which is about 27 days) as a pressure on what i think is my right ovary. It builds up and gets more painful and peaks on day 18-22 then gets a bit bettet untill my period, then period pain for 2-3 days and then I’m totally fine untill next day 7-10.
It starts with a dull pain in my right ovary or lower right side of the back. It spreads to back, hip, thigh and uterus, lasts for 10-40 minutes and is acompagniet by nausea.
It comes multiple times a day but mostly and worst in evening, night and morning.
Sometimes it just omes out of the blue, other times its triggered by fysical movement or filled bladder.
I’ve beed to docters, gynocologists, physical therapist, acupunktures, massage therapists, women clinic experts.
Endometriosis is ruled out, tight psoas (which can actually cause this, if anyone havn’t tried this) is ruled out.

I read that 7 days after ovulation, progesterone level peaks, which fits my pain pattern, has any of you noticed this?

Same here, same pain, for the last 10 years, it is not getting worst. Mine starts 9 days and stops 2 days before my period, it is located in the right lower abdomen. It usually wakes me up around 3 am. The pain is so intense it irradiates until my upper right leg. Talk about with more than 6 doctors in EU and Latin America, nobody cares. It doesn't happen every single month but when it happens makes me hate my life.

I have been having similar pain that is being described here since spring of 2021 and have not been able to figure out a solution to it despite going to multiple doctors in the US. I am glad to have least found some people with similar symptoms and will share my story as perhaps it will help others.

I am 36 years old and every month after I ovulate and before I menstruate I get daily recurring bouts of intense pain across my lower abdomen lasting anywhere from 15 minutes to a few hours. It is debilitating and costs me sleep for at least a week each month. I have even thrown up and almost fainted from the pain. At first I thought these were some type of period cramp triggered during my luteal phase and that I might have endometriosis since the pain is located around where my ovaries are. I do not have pain like this when I menstruate, however.

I saw an endometriosis specialist and after two TVUs, an MRI, and a discussion of my symptoms, we all but ruled out endometriosis. In particular I was put on a progesterone birth control that immediately stimulated my pain during a time in my cycle that I normally would never have pain. Stopping the BC after a week immediately stopped the pain. I had already suspected that progesterone might be triggering my pain and this made me feel fairly certain of it. Notably, progesterone slows down motility in the intestines and increased levels during pregnancy can be why pregnant women have digestive issues. I also have IBS-D and have been seeing a gastroenterologist for these same symptoms to see if they are gastro related. I have done multiple gastro tests including an endoscopy and colonoscopy and nothing looks amiss. After shifting my perspective to thinking about these cramps as a potential gastro issue I realized that they commonly came after eating and that going to the bathroom or at least trying to go to the bathroom could relieve them somewhat. I am now considering that it might be severe gas pain from trapped gas in my lower intestine that is somehow being generated during the luteal phase.

As for what I have tried as a solution. No OTC pain medication has helped me. Dicyclomine is an anticholinergic that is used for IBS and slows motility in the lower intestines and has helped me somewhat but it is not a great solution. Heating pads help a little as does exercise and stretching but not enough to stop the issue. The pain is the worst at night when I am trying to sleep and cannot move around. I am currently trying to increase fiber intake via psyllium to see if that helps and I am also going to try taking simethicone before each meal and before bed to see if my gas pain hypothesis is possibly correct.

Ultimately, I feel like this is an issue that would require multiple doctors to collaborate (ie endocrine, gastro, gyn) and it feels like each field is siloed in western medicine so it has been impossible to find a solution.

I have an update:
About half a year after I wrote the above, -I got an MRI scan which showed that I actually have endometriosis, they just couldn’t see it on ultrasound scans…

Hi, @marthamartha - great that you've posted an update, and I'm glad to hear you have some answers.

Here's a thread on Mayo Clinic Connect you may want to check out on endometriosis:

-Endometriosis Excision
https://connect.mayoclinic.org/discussion/endometriosis-excision/

Hello all,

I’m grateful for this thread as it helps to not feel alone with these symptoms. I’m so sorry for everyone who is experiencing ongoing pain with no answers.

A small update from me, which might help someone… I was referred to a vascular surgeon and investigated for pelvic congestion syndrome, which simply put is varicose veins in the abdomen. It was found to have large, ballooned veins which have now been treated. I was told this is common (especially in women who have experienced pregnancy) and a significant contributor to pelvic pain. I encourage everyone to investigate this path.
Unfortunately my pelvic congestion syndrome isn’t the main contributing cause to my pain, but it’s still hopefully to eliminate an issue and continue the search.