Odd cramping after orgasm and bowel movements

[kyliecat]

This is quite odd but I experience an uncomfortable cramping in my lower abdomen after I have an orgasm or after a particularly intense bowel movement. It's somewhat painful but definitely more on the uncomfortable side. Occasionally I will also feel the cramping when I get sexually excited. It doesn't last for too long, a few minutes at most but I was curious if anyone else had experienced something like this.

Thank you for your feedback.

[crampymccrampersons]

Thank god! I absolutely have this too and its been so frustrating. It started happening very occasionally when I was in my early 30's but now in my late 30's it is like clockwork. The pain occurs in the luteal phase of my cycle, from ovulation until my period, sometimes a few days before when I feel the hormone shift. The pain event is almost always the same although the severity increases as I get closer to my period. The pain is triggered by orgasm and sometimes arousal or vigorous sex and lasts for about ten minutes, usually I have to poop, get sweaty, a few times have even felt like I was going to throw up and was salivating a lot. It goes away after about ten minutes and I feel totally normal, almost even better than I did before, like something has relaxed. I also get "the pain" after my first morning pee, sometimes after a bowel movement and sometimes after getting up from sitting  for a while and moving around, but again, only in the luteal phase. I've tried accupuncture, pelvic floor rehabilitation, have had an ultrasound and nothing was found. My periods are actually very easy, not much pain (in fact I'm usually so relieved when it finally arrives because I know I have a good week and a half of pain free orgasms!), and only light/medium heavy bleeding so I don't think endometriosis is very likely. I'm definitely gonna try the magnesium/cod liver/vitamin D combination and will let you know what I find. Please keep updating.

[Stch88]

Hi I’ve been taking vitamin D regularly for at least a year now and have noticed SIGNIFICANT improvement. I hope it helps you too!

[gembug]

I am getting so tired of waking in the middle of the night with an orgasm, then having severe cramps/sweating/bowel movements, etc immediately after. So far this happened 4 times already this month. I am at the point I am afraid to go to sleep. What on earth is causing this?!?! SO FED UP!!

[mysteri0uspain]

Is it connected to our pelvic floor muscles? I read about learning to relax them and going to pelvic floor physical therapy. Has anyone does this and been successful?

[specialmom]

Have you ever heard of the yoga classes specifically designed for pelvic floor muscles?  I'm sure you can do these at home through youtube or something??  I'll look to see what I can find.  If you find anything, come back and share.

[Charlibrown89]

I’ve found forums where women talk about symptoms that are along the same lines as what I experience but never one that was this accurate. I have endured this pain for the past 5 years, however I had relief from it for over a year and a half whilst living abroad. As soon as I arrived back in the UK all of my symptoms returned within a matter of weeks. I have tried to come up with many explanations from smoking (being a factor that can induce IBS) to tightening my muscles excessively during orgasm. Nothing has really stuck for me as a solution.

Survey

1. Are you underweight, normal weight, overweight or obese?  
~overweight. During my period of being pain free I was in the process of losing weight and lost a substantial amount.

2. How old were you when the pains started?  
~23

3. How long have you experienced the pain for?  
~ about 5 years

4. When do you get pain?  

I get extremely intense pain after orgasm, a bowel movement and exercise (even if it’s only walking or climbing the 2 sets of stairs to get to my flat). I get milder versions when aroused, when I have a full bladder which often wakes me up in the night and just random pain at any time.

5. Is the pain particularly bad after one of the above? Orgasm bowel movements and exercise.  

6. Do you only have the pain after orgasm or after arousal as well? After arousal.

7. Do you experience pain all month or just at particular times? The only time I get this pain is the whole of the 2/2.5 weeks leading up to my period. The day I get my period I go back to having pain free orgasms.

8. Have you been woken up from sleeping by pain? Yes, it doesn’t stick to the abdomen the pain travels to my rear and down my thighs. Or it’s just plain bladder pain. I thought the bladder pain may be from being squashed as when I’m due on I get very bad inflammation and Bloating (feels like IBS). The rest of the month I’m fine.

9. What are ways to reduce pain? If I get close to orgasm and stop for a bit, the pain comes on but a little milder than usual. Once I’ve let my body kind of get accustomed to it I can continue to orgasm and it’s not as painful.

10. Do you know if your mother, grandmother or sisters have the same pains? Nope

11. Have you been diagnosed with fibroids?  
Nope.

12. Never been pregnant

13. How long does your pain last?  
20-35 minutes  

14. When the pain passes, will it return if you resume sexual activity?  
yes  

15. Describe the pain.
Very intense cramping from my abdomen through to my legs and everywhere in between. I feel the need to pass wind/feel my bowels engaging to pass a bowel movement. Sometimes having a bowel movement will ease the pain, other times it makes it worse. I sweat, feel hot and dizzy, nauseous and in many cases throw up.

After reading a few responses one possible explanation did make sense to me. Taking vitamin d and magnesium. During my year and a half abroad, my diet consisted of salmon, avocado, almonds, bananas, spinach. These are all foods high in either vitamin d, magnesium or both. Add to that the increased water intake and it sounds like a fairly plausible solution. During those 18 months the only pain I had was during exercise (running mainly) even toward the end of that period when I was extremely physically fit. I knew increasing vitamin D would help because it’s an anti inflammatory however I had no idea about magnesium and it’s link to the menstrual cycle.

I am so glad I found this forum. I hope my story will help many of you. My quality of life has been greatly affected by something that is so hard to openly talk about. I hope everyone finds their answers.

[Charlibrown89]

It’s also worth mentioning that during my 18 months of being pre period pain free, I also experienced no regular cramps during my period. This is probably also due to the high amounts of magnesium I was getting from my diet. I have always had cramps during my period so to suddenly be completely pain free was extremely unexpected. And again, once I returned home and my diet changed, I resumed getting cramps during my actual period as well as before it.

[Lyhdha]

Thanks so much. I thought I was alone, I have spent a lot nd I have been misdiagnosed.. I have had many scans nd it has it that everything is normal. I'm literally shedding tears cos I didn't know what was happening to me. As I'm typing now I'm been treated For PID but I haven't had vaginal sex before. Thank God I found this platform

[ende1]

I think orgasmicPain above is on the right track! Hydrate, hydrate, hydrate!

Thanks to the awful heatwave this summer, I finally connected the dots between dehydration and my menstrual cramps always getting a little worse in the summertime. Now they got a LOT worse, but drinking more water (upping in the intake from 1-1,5 liters to 2,5-3 per day) helped with that very quickly. I went looking for further information about this connection, and bingo: it seems that when you get even slightly dehydrated, your body starts releasing a hormone very similar to the one that induces uterine cramping, and during the luteal phase, this anti-diuretic hormone is released in much larger quantities, which would explain why this pain after orgasms (or exercise) happens most often during the luteal phase. (Come to think of it, the worst pains I've had have always been first thing in the morning, when one is most likely to be dehydrated after not drinking anything for hours. It fits!)

Here's a good article from a runner's point of view explaining the chemistry behind these mystery cramps: http://realworldrunner.blogspot.com/2013/10/dehydration-causes-uterine-cramps.html

(I talked about muscle tightness in a comment above, and I do still feel that it's a major component (and also made worse by dehydration!), but this ADH vs oxytocin could be the mysterious hormonal element I wondered about that makes the muscles so much more prone to cramping during luteal phase.)

[Stch88]

Hi, I’ve also been experiencing this for about five years now and research it every time. I don’t know how I just found this thread, but glad I did! I started taking daily vitamin D supplements and have noticed improvement. I can tell when I haven’t been taking them daily that my body reverts back to its normal, painful routine.