Abdominal pain is any pain or discomfort that occurs between the lower chest and the groin. Commonly referred to as the “belly,” the abdomen consists of many organs, including the stomach, intestines, liver, gallbladder, pancreas, esophagus, and numerous blood vessels. Abdominal pain may be generalized, occurring throughout the abdomen, or it may be present in a small area of the belly.
Lower Abdominal pain is a symptom of a wide variety of mild to serious diseases, disorders and conditions, such as indigestion, stress, infection, gallstones, inflammation, intestinal obstruction, peptic ulcer, and cancer. Abdominal pain can also occur as a side effect of medication.
Depending on the cause, abdominal pain can last briefly, such as when it occurs from indigestion due to eating rich food. Abdominal pain can also last for a longer period of time, such as when it is due to chronic pancreatitis, stomach cancer, or gastroesophageal reflux disease (GERD). Long-term abdominal pain may be continuous or occur sporadically.
Symptoms of Lower abdominal pain can be described as mild to severe, acute, ongoing, or cramp-like. While most people will experience abdomen pain in their lifetime, it is rarely caused by a serious medical problem.
However, abdominal pain that is associated with vomiting blood, bloody stools, dizziness, abdominal distention, fainting, shortness of breath, or yellowing of the skin (jaundice) can be a sign of a serious, potentially life-threatening condition and should be immediately evaluated in an emergency setting. If your abdominal pain is persistent or causes you concern, contact a medical professional.
Pain from the urinary system can indicate such conditions as cystitis (inflammation of the bladder), inflammation of the collecting system of one or both kidneys (pyelonephritis), kidney stones or uncommonly tumours.
Typical symptoms of infections are a burning sensation when passing urine and a need to empty the bladder more frequently. In addition, pain travelling from the back and around to the front might suggest a kidney infection or kidney stone.
The pain associated with kidney stones may be particularly severe. The presence of blood in the urine raises the possibilities of infection, kidney or bladder stones or even a bladder or kidney tumour. Both benign and malignant tumours can first make themselves noticed in this way. The presence of blood in the urine always requires further investigation and should be reported to your doctor.
The duration of the pain will further help you and your doctor to make the correct diagnosis.
The bowel can give rise to a wide variety of symptoms including pain.
Constipation and diarrhoea can be painful in themselves, and the change in bowel habit usually identifies the pain as coming from the bowel. Pain from the bowel is often described as colicky in nature. This means that the pain or discomfort comes in waves with little or no discomfort in between the pain.
Bloating or swelling of the lower abdomen may be present in many intestinal (bowel) conditions including irritable bowel syndrome.
The passing of fresh blood or altered blood (black motions) from the back passage should be reported to your doctor as investigation is usually necessary.
