abdominal pain

by sonia
(fife)

Recently I was suffering from severe pain that ran down the right side of my abdomen. I was given antibiotics, as when I was examined; my doctor thought I was bleeding in side. This didn't help and I was referred to have a scan of my ovaries and womb. This was clear and I am currently waiting to go to the hospital to get another scan as my smear test came back abnormal. At the moment I also have constipation and was told just to take pain killers in mean time.

Your abdominal pain

Hi Sonia, sorry to hear that you have been having these problems. Sounds like you have a mixture of gynaecological and bowel symptoms. Difficult to know which is giving you the pain though.

Constipation is very common in IBS as well as other bowel conditions such as diverticular disease, tumours, Crohns disease and many others. Your constipation maybe due to taking painkillers as a lot of the codeine based analgesics can cause this. Your doctor is clearly doing the right thing referring you for a scan in view of the smear test results etc.

You might need to have a colonoscopy (flexible camera test of the large bowel) in due course depending on your scan findings. You haven't mentioned your age, but I assume as you have had a smear, that you are of childbearing age. Good luck and keep us informed of your progress!


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