Have you ever noticed pain in one side of your abdomen around half-way through your menstrual cycle?  It might be crampy or sharp pains that go on for minutes or hours or a day or even two.  It might switch sides from month to month.  Those pains of ovulation are referred to as Mittelschmerz.  It's a German word that means "middle pain" but I think it sounds like a great curse word! And almost no one will know what you'

Even though they can be uncomfortable, annoying and sometimes painful they actually can be useful to let you know when you are ovulating, especially if you are trying to get pregnant!  I didn't know what those little cramps were until I began researching infertility.   Since I was "anovulatory" I wasn't ovulating regularly and didn't notice any cramping.  Besides I was so out-of-tune with my body back-in-the-day that even if I experienced the odd twinge or cramp I would never have realized that it was from that little egg celebrating it's release and rolling down my fallopian tube!

So it's not surprising that once I balanced my hormones and started experiencing Mittelschmerz that I embraced those little pains!  I knew that my body was finally working the way it was supposed to.  I could tell which ovary had released an egg that month.

Not every woman gets Mittleschmerz, I think about 20% report the monthly pains so if you don't notice them I don't want you to go away thinking you don't ovulate!  And if you do have pain and you think there is something wrong definitely see your doctor and/or naturopath.  Severe pain during ovulation should be investigated by your doctor.

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