severe pain in lower left abdomen
If severe pain in your left and lower abdomen worries you.
If you are looking for factors that cause severe pain in the lower abdomen and left side.
If you want to know the way to get rid of severe pain in the lower left side of your abdomen.
If you have severe pain in the lower left abdomen.
Read more:
In this article, we have tried to gather everything you need to know about severe lower and left pains and present it in simple language.
What causes severe pain in the lower left abdomen?
Why do I have pain in my lower left abdomen?
Do not worry, we will answer your questions by reading this article.
What you will read next:
Abdominal pain is one of the pains that all people experience during their lifetime.
On the lower left side of the abdomen are the genitourinary organs and the gastrointestinal tract.
In addition, skin and vascular problems can cause occasional severe pain in the lower left side of your abdomen.
Let's see first:
What organs are there in the lower left abdomen?
Doctors have divided the abdomen into four quarters to make it easier to describe abdominal diseases:
- Upper right quarter
- Upper left quarter
- Lower right quarter
- Lower left quarter
So obviously the subject of this article will be about the severe pain in the lower left quadrant.
What organs are located in the lower left quadrant of the abdomen?
- The end of the colon, or indeed the descending colon
- The sigmoid colon
- Parts of the small intestine
- Left ureter
And in women:
- Left ovary
- Left fallopian tube
Therefore, the presence of any disorder in any of the above organs can sometimes manifest with severe pain in the lower left abdomen.
Compared to men, severe lower and left abdominal pain in women will have more causes because women have more organs in the lower left quadrant.
Pain in the lower left side of the abdomen can be focal and remain only in the lower left quadrant, or they may have access to other areas.
Pain in the lower abdomen and left side can be very sharp with a sudden onset, it can be short, it can stop or it can continue.
Statistics show that women are most likely to suffer from severe pain in the lower quadrant and left abdomen. Older women are also one of the groups who are more likely to experience lower left abdominal pain.
Severe pain in the lower left side of the abdomen can be accompanied by what symptoms?
Abdominal cramps
nausea
Vomit
Diarrhea
Constipation
Blood in the stool
Blood in the urine
Bleeding from the anus
What are the symptoms in women with severe lower left abdominal pain?
Irregular menstrual cycle
Painful bowel movements
Pain in vaginal intercourse
Painful menstruation
Abnormal vaginal bleeding
What are the causes of severe pain in the lower left abdomen?
We mentioned above what organs are in the lower left quadrant of the abdomen.
In this part, there is a special confusion in the placement of organs, so this part will be very prone to injury, obstruction and inflammation, each of which may cause severe pain in the lower left and left abdomen.
Together we read the causes of severe pain in the lower left abdomen:
Common causes of severe lower and left abdominal pain in both men and women
First, common causes of severe lower and left abdominal pain in men and women:
- Causes of problems and diseases in the digestive system:
The large intestine or clone of a human is large and long and is located on its own. Any disturbance, weakness, or reduction of function in the colon can interfere with the forward movement of the contents of the gastrointestinal tract and behind the location of the disorder, a buildup of fecal material develops and increases the pressure inside the intestine and inside the abdomen.
Increasing this pressure inside the intestinal lumen may cause parts of the abdominal wall that are weak to protrude like a bag when a small portion of the intestines enters them.
The meaning of the created conditions are abdominal wall hernias that often occur in areas where the muscles of the anterior abdominal wall are weak.
Also, with increasing intra-abdominal pressure, the intestines may become herniated through the site of previous surgical incisions (incisal hernias).
Hernias, for whatever reason they are created, can cause severe pain due to the loss of blood supply to the intestines inside the hernia sac.
As the pressure inside the lumen of the colon rises, sac-like parts may protrude from the outer wall of the intestine. These tiny sacs are called the colonic diverticulum.
The weakest site of the colon wall is on the lower left side of the abdomen, and this is the most common site of diverticulum formation.
Most diverticula will have no symptoms and the asymptomatic person will not even know they have a diverticulum.
Occasionally the inner wall of the sac may become inflamed. Inflammation will cause a blockage in the connection between the diverticulum and the lumen of the colon.
Inflammation of the inner wall of the diverticulum is called diverticulitis.
Most cases of diverticulitis have mild to moderate symptoms, such as mild pain in the lower and left abdomen that is accompanied by a slight bloating, diarrhea, or constipation and resolves on its own, but sometimes diverticulitis causes very loud and noisy symptoms, older women usually have such a sign.
What are the symptoms of severe diverticulitis?
- Very severe pain in the lower left abdomen
- Bleeding from the anus
- Bloody stools
- Fever
- Diarrhea
- Constipation
- Nausea and vomiting
- Lethargy
- Weakness
- lightheadedness
What are the gastrointestinal causes of severe left lower abdominal pain?
- incisal hernias
- Umbilical hernia
- Inguinal hernia
- Abdominal hernia
- Obstructions
- Diverticulitis (one of the most common causes of severe lower left abdominal pain in older women)
- Colitis and inflammation of the intestine
- Food poisoning
- Irritable bowel syndrome
- Tumors
- Of course, indigestion, constipation and bloating can be the cause of mild to moderate pain in the lower and left abdomen.
- Causes of urinary tract disorders that lead to severe lower and left abdominal pain.
Sometimes left ureteral stones can cause severe pain in the lower left side of the abdomen, often spreading to the groin.
Ureteral stones come from the kidneys. Kidney stones affect one in ten people in the community at least once in their lifetime. Having a kidney stone for the first time increases the risk of recurrence the next time.
If the ureteral stone is small, it usually has no symptoms and will be excreted with the flow of urine, but a large ureteral stone can be accompanied by ureteral obstruction. With ureteral obstruction, the flow of urine from the kidneys to the bladder is blocked, urine accumulates behind the obstruction site and returns to the kidneys, causing severe pain in the lower abdomen (left ureteral obstruction is accompanied by severe lower abdominal pain).
The body tries to expel the stone with movements of the ureteral wall; Therefore, urine may turn pink due to tissue damage. Frequent urination is common and urination is accompanied by pain and burning. If infection occurs, fever, chills, and nausea and vomiting may be added to the clinical symptoms.
Some ureteral stones are seen on plain radiographs. Sometimes a CT scan of the urethra is needed, in addition to a blood test, analysis, and culture of a urine sample.
In the first step, non-surgical treatments will be considered and in cases of refractory or severe symptoms of infection, surgery will be necessary.
- Kidney tissue infection or pyelonephritis
Infection of kidney tissue with bacteria is called pyelonephritis.
Pyelonephritis can be acute or chronic.
Another type of pyelonephritis will be emphysematous pyelonephritis.
Symptoms of pyelonephritis
- Fever and chills that start suddenly.
- Side pain
- Headache
- Body pain
- Lethargy
- Generalized weakness
- Dysuria
- Turbid or bloody urine
- Fluffy urine
- Stinky urine
- nausea and vomiting
It is interesting to know that pyelonephritis in children usually has no side pain and is a manifestation of severe abdominal pain.
Emphysematous pyelonephritis is a very destructive infection of the kidney tissue and most people with diabetes suffer from it.
The infectious agent in this disorder produces a lot of gas, which is actually the presence of gas in and around the kidneys that causes this pyelonephritis.
Admission and prompt initiation of intravenous antibiotics and blood glucose control are required.
In chronic pyelonephritis, the size of the kidney involved is small and the above symptoms will not be present until they have an acute infection. Structural and functional problems are the cause of chronic pyelonephritis, which causes kidney failure.
So severe lower and left abdominal pain may follow acute pyelonephritis or emphysematous pyelonephritis.
Generally urinary tract infections or UTIs
- Inflammatory causes of the skin that can occur with very severe lower and left abdominal pain:
Shingles is an infectious skin disease caused by the activation of herpes zoster or chickenpox virus.
- Burning and sometimes severe pain in one part of the body (face, chest, abdomen, back) is the first clinical sign of shingles. Inflammatory red spots will form in the same area, which will gradually develop into watery blisters that burst easily.
- Severe pain
- Excessive fatigue
- Feeling lethargic and bored
.With shingles pain, is seen in the lower left side of the abdomen
The following people are at the highest risk for shingles:
- People with immunodeficiency, such as:
- People living with AIDS
- People undergoing chemotherapy
- People undergoing radiotherapy
- People taking immunosuppressive drugs, for example: chronic users of corticosteroids, users of transplant analgesics
- People with diabetes
- elderly
These individuals are at high risk for lung tissue infection (pneumonia) and brain tissue infection (encephalitis).
Because exposure of a pregnant mother to a person with shingles or chicken pox will be associated with a higher risk of the mother becoming infected, unfortunately the shingles and chicken pox virus exposes the fetus to new disorders.
- Causes related to disorders of the reproductive system
▪ Men
Left testicular torsion (testicular torsion is a medical emergency)
A sudden and very severe pain that is mainly felt in the lower and left side of the abdomen.
▪ Women
Left ovarian torsion: Twisting of the left ovary around its vascular base occurs mainly in young girls and is accompanied by a very severe pain with a sudden occurrence that is felt in the lower left side of the abdomen.
Lack of timely treatment is associated with cessation of ovarian blood flow and its loss.
An ectopic pregnancy in a ruptured fallopian tube or left ovary is a medical emergency.
Without timely treatment, the mother's death will be inevitable.
Severe lower left abdominal pain in early pregnancy in a woman who, despite having her beta-hormone HCG recorded, had no evidence of intrauterine pregnancy on ultrasound, is accompanied with vaginal bleeding
Nausea vomiting
lightheadedness
Sudden pain in the lower back
Vertigo
Weakness
lethargy
Confusion, hypotension
Increased heart rate
Decreased consciousness
coma
Death.
Abdominal and pelvic traumas can also be associated with severe lower and left abdominal pain, the presence of swollen bruises, which may even cause internal bleeding following blows, accidents, and trauma.
Causes of severe lower and left abdominal pain
In general causes of severe lower and left abdominal pain are:
- diverticulitis
- Stuck hernia
- Intestinal obstruction
- Left testicular torsion
- Left ovarian torsion
- Torsion of the left ovary and fallopian tube
- Outer ectopic pregnancy in the left fallopian tube
- Ectopic pregnancy rupture in the left ovary
- Some abnormal Non-physiological ovarian cyst
- Prolonged constipation
- Tumors
- emphysematous pyelonephritis
What can cause less severe pain in the lower left abdomen?
- Urinary tract infections
- Bloating
- Indigestion
- Sometimes stomach ulcers
- Inflammation of the intestine or colitis
- Irritable bowel syndrome or IBS
- Gastritis
- Food poisoning
Measures needed to diagnose the cause of severe lower and left abdominal pain
In addition to taking personal and medical history and family history and after physical exam according to the conditions and the list of possible differential diagnoses, the doctor requests one or more diagnostic tests from the following collection:
Laboratory tests
Simple X-ray of the abdomen
Abdominal ultrasound
CT scan or computed tomography of the abdomen and pelvis
MRI of the abdomen and pelvis
Endoscopic gastrointestinal studies:
endoscopy of Gastric and esophageal
Colonoscopy
Flexible sigmoidoscopy
Endoscopy Ultrasound
Treatments
Depending on the underlying cause of the lower left abdominal pain, the doctor will prescribe appropriate treatment.
Some examples of treatments are as follows:
- Adjust your diet
- Intestinal rest after diagnosis of obstructive or infectious causes
- Addressing menstrual cycle problems in women
- Medications depending on the cause
- Surgery:
- Left ovarian torsion
- Left testicular torsion
- Ruptured ectopic pregnancy
The only treatment option for the above cases is emergency surgery.
Prevention of severe pain in the lower left abdomen
- Adherence to a balanced, healthy and high-fiber diet
A diet high in fat and meat will predispose the intestines to inflammation and obstruction
- Consume plenty of fluids throughout the day
- Keep calm and avoid stress while eating
- Strengthen the muscles of the anterior abdominal wall with exercise, dance and yoga
When should we see a doctor?
- Severe and unbearable pain
- Pain that intensifies
- Frequent vomiting
- Persistent diarrhea
- Constipation that lasts a long time
- No excretion of gas and feces
- The presence of blood in the stool
- Bleeding from the anus
- Lightheadedness and increasing weakness
- Anorexia
- Unjustified weight loss
- and abnormal vaginal bleeding