When your lower stomach hurts after sex, you want to know why so you can get relief. While sex is a pleasure for most, pain in the abdomen following penetration can ruin the experience.
According to Yale New Haven Hospital ob-gyn Mary Jane Minkin, infection with certain sexually transmitted infections like chlamydia and gonorrhea can cause pelvic pain during sex. Regular screenings and prompt treatment can prevent further complications down there.
Endometriosis
When you have sex, your uterus tilts forward, which can cause abdominal pain. This is normal, and the pain goes away after sex is over. If you experience this pain consistently, you may need to consider whether it is due to a medical condition.
Some women experience pain due to endometriosis, a condition where the cells that line the uterus grow outside of the womb. This can cause a variety of symptoms, including pelvic pain and abdominal cramping. Your doctor can determine the cause of your pain by performing a pelvic exam and taking into account your menstrual cycle.
Other causes of stomach pain after sex include ovarian cysts and fibroids. If you have a cyst that ruptures, it can be very painful and require immediate medical attention. Fibroids are benign tumors that develop inside or on the uterus, and they can also cause severe cramping after sex. In some cases, these tumors can be treated with medications or laparoscopic surgery. This can help reduce pain and improve fertility. If these treatments don’t work, talk to your gynecologist about other options.
Pelvic Inflammatory Disease (PID)
Pelvic inflammatory disease (PID) is an infection of the female reproductive organs that can lead to pain in your lower stomach. It’s usually caused by a sexually transmitted infection, like gonorrhea or chlamydia. If you have PID, your health care provider will give you antibiotics to treat it. It’s important that you get treatment right away because PID can cause serious problems, including infertility and ectopic pregnancy (when an egg grows outside of the uterus).
If you have symptoms of PID, your doctor will probably do a pelvic exam. They may swab the inside of your vagina or cervix to check for an infection and send samples to the lab to test for gonorrhea or chlamydia. They may also do a pelvic ultrasound or CT scan to see if your uterus, fallopian tubes, or ovaries are infected or have an abscess.
If you have PID, your health care team will talk to you about birth control options so you can avoid pregnancy in the future. You’ll also need to tell any recent sex partners so they can get tested and treated for STIs too.
Gastrospasis
Sometimes stomach pain during or after sex is caused by something quite benign, like gas or deep penetration. Although, as with any discomfort, it’s worth checking out with a medical professional to rule out serious complications.
For example, you might have a condition called gastroparesis, which is when the normal spontaneous movement of your stomach muscles slows down and stops your digestion. This can cause stomach pain, nausea, and vomiting.
Another potential culprit is a tilted uterus, which causes about 30 percent of women to experience pain during sexual intercourse. This is because the uterus can react to sperm coming into contact with it, which leads to uterine contractions. This can also lead to painful bowel movements.
A US Fibroid Centers’ interventional radiologist can perform a minimally invasive procedure to help get rid of the fibroids, so that your stomach doesn’t hurt after sex anymore. The UFE (uterine fibroid embolization) procedure is safe, effective, and has an 85 to 95 percent success rate. Contact a location near you to learn more.
Celiac Disease
Most discussions of sex revolve around pleasure, but painful sex gets less attention. Women experiencing pain in the lower abdomen after sex should see a gynecologist to seek diagnosis and treatment. Pain in this area of the pelvis may indicate that a woman is suffering from vaginal or uterine dryness. This condition can be caused by menopause, birth control, and other factors that affect hormones. Untreated, vaginal dryness can lead to a variety of symptoms, including pain after sex.
The most common causes of abdominal pain after sex are problems with the digestive system. Gas, constipation, and bowel conditions such as irritable bowel syndrome can all cause cramping after sex.
To diagnose celiac disease, your doctor will do special blood tests to measure antibodies against gluten (coeliac serology). If these are positive, they will refer you to a gastroenterologist for a small bowel biopsy. This procedure involves passing a slender instrument (an endoscope) through your mouth into your small intestine to take samples. The small bowel biopsy will allow your doctor to check for damage to the villi in your stomach and confirm the diagnosis.
Other Digestive Disorders
Whether or not your pain is due to sex, you should see a doctor. Digestive problems can be very serious and require medical attention. Some women who suffer from uterine fibroids, ovarian cysts or pelvic congestion syndrome experience lower abdominal pain after sex.
Other disorders in the digestive tract can also cause stomach pain after sex, especially if they affect the lower digestive tract. Those include functional dyspepsia, which is characterized by pain above the belly button, bloating and nausea (often without vomiting). It can be triggered by certain foods, infections and stress.
Fortunately, most of the conditions that cause stomach pain after sex are not serious or life-threatening. But if you have severe abdominal pain after sex, make an appointment with your gynecologist and let them know what’s happening. They will examine you and run tests to determine the cause of your pain and design a treatment plan. In most cases, the pain will be relieved by a simple course of medication. But if the pain is due to a serious condition, you may need surgery to correct it.
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