Painless menstruation in women of childbearing age is a sign of good health and stable hormonal levels. Unfortunately, only a few can boast of such a phenomenon. Most women experience discomfort of varying severity during this period. Knee pain during menstruation is one of these troubles that worries constantly or from time to time, regardless of the woman’s age.
There is no clear answer to the question of the causes of this condition; each case is deeply individual. The causes of aching knee pain vary depending on the age and general health of the woman. Both individual characteristics of the location of the uterus and serious joint diseases can cause pain in the knee joints. What do experts explain about this, and is it possible to alleviate the condition?
Symptoms of discomfort in the legs during menstruation
First of all, you need to figure out what the connection is between menstruation and leg pain.
Pain in the legs can be radiating, that is, spread from the uterus along the inner surface of the thighs, and be one of the symptoms of dysmenorrhea. Another possible cause of leg pain is peripheral edema, including swelling of the legs. In this case, a few days before the onset of menstruation, there may also be a slight increase in body weight and moderate swelling of the face and limbs. This condition is associated with an increase in the volume of the liquid part of the blood15. In addition, dysmenorrhea can often be accompanied by somatic symptoms, including myalgia (muscle pain) and arthralgia (joint pain)16. Pay attention to leg pain associated with acute conditions that require immediate medical attention. Important symptoms to pay close attention to are described below3:
- restriction or loss of movement in the joint;
- an increase in volume or swelling of the joint area;
- change in color (bluish, red) and temperature (hot) of the skin over the joint or along the veins;
- swelling of the limb;
- general symptoms (chills, weakness).
However, it is important to understand that there are many diseases that lead to pain in the legs. Below are the most typical causes of leg pain, when they occur you should be especially attentive to yourself.
Features of adolescence
Knees hurt during menstruation.
In adolescent girls aged 10-12 years, the formation of femininity is associated with the time of physiological growth of the body. Active development of the skeleton and muscles does not always occur simultaneously with the formation of the genital organs.
Knees hurt before menstruation in girls due to poor blood supply to the legs due to an unregulated vascular system. Along with pain, slight numbness may be felt. The growth of the uterus during this period is also not yet complete; it may have bends. Contracting during the menstrual period, the incompletely formed uterus of a teenage girl causes spasmodic pain, radiating throughout the spine and reaching the knees.
The physiological restructuring of adolescence is accompanied by a significant release of hormones and irritation of the nervous system. During menstruation, girls complain of pain throughout the body and dizziness. At night, he twists his joints, especially his legs and knees.
Usually, as you get older and with the beginning of regular sexual activity, the menstrual cycle becomes stable, heavy sensations smooth out, and knee pain goes away.
Joints hurt
Normally, movements in the joints are not accompanied by pain. However, if movements become potentially dangerous, joints become injured or inflamed, then the central nervous system perceives movements in the limbs as pain4.
Joint pain in women can appear due to degenerative processes in the osteoarticular system, which is especially typical during perimenopause: against the background of a decrease in estrogen, collagen synthesis slows down, articular cartilage begins to “wear away,” and pain occurs5. Pathologically changed joints in menopausal women are prone to inflammation, then we are talking about arthritis5.
Before and during menstruation, joint pain may intensify as the level of the female hormone progesterone falls and the content of prostaglandins increases. Normally, a decrease in progesterone levels leads to a similar inflammatory response, resulting in endometrial shedding and menstruation10. Sometimes the effects of inflammation can spread beyond the uterus, and pain can appear in other organs10.
What to do
Heating pad for pain relief
First of all, this is a consultation with a gynecologist. At the appointment, you should describe in as much detail as possible the nature of the pain in the knees, the time (before, after or during menstruation, the knees ache), and the frequency of attacks. What will the doctor do?
First of all, he will do all kinds of procedures to determine the state of women's health. If the question “why” remains open to the gynecologist, he will give a referral for examination by other doctors.
Modern medicine has in its arsenal effective ways to alleviate women’s period of menstruation; only for the correct formulation the cause of the ailment must be determined.
Numbness in the legs
Numbness in the legs may be accompanied by a feeling of heaviness, bloating, burning in the legs, and cramps in the calf muscles. Such symptoms are characteristic of varicose veins3. The venous plexuses of the small pelvis may be dilated, then, along with pain in the legs during menstruation, unpleasant sensations will occur in the area of the uterus, perineum, and rectum7. Dilation of the veins of the extremities leads to impaired blood flow, stagnation, and numbness of the extremities. There is often pain along the vessels. Symptoms worsen when standing for a long time, at the end of the day, in hot weather3. As the disease progresses, swelling occurs, occurring in the evening and disappearing in the morning3.
Menopause and menstruation
Pain in the maple tree is one of the manifestations of menopause.
If the hormonal storms of adolescents are associated with the formation of femininity, then mature women are destined to experience many unpleasant moments in connection with the restructuring of the body to complete the childbearing period. The situation when knees hurt during menstruation is one of the manifestations of menopause.
During premenopause, menstruation becomes more abundant and their regularity becomes less regular. All signs of PMS intensify, heaviness appears throughout the body, fatigue, and aching sensations in the legs are added. If the cause of such sensations is only hormonal changes, then during the period of entering the postmenopausal period, the pain in the legs subsides along with the subsidence of menstruation.
The question is different: during this period, more than ever, joint diseases in women, associated with the restructuring of the functioning of the entire body, become more acute. This is the time when a woman needs a complete change in habits, sleep and rest patterns, nutrition, and regular physical activity.
The cause of sore legs during or before menstruation should be determined together with a doctor - in some cases, this condition may signal the onset of serious pathologies in bone tissue.
Aching legs
Any disorders of the musculoskeletal system can provoke pinched nerves and the appearance of unpleasant sensations in the lower extremities. This could be osteochondrosis, disc protrusion, etc. The most common location of such disorders is the lumbar and sacral spine7. They are usually accompanied by nagging pain along the path of the pinched nerves8.
Due to a rapid “growth spurt,” a deficiency of vitamins and minerals, especially calcium and vitamin D, can occur. Because of this, the process of mineralization of bone tissue is disrupted, which is manifested by pain4,8. Another reason is a transient decrease in bone density during the period of intensive growth, which occurs in half of children9.
Teenage girls can experience aching legs during puberty.
Aches in the legs may be accompanied by damage to the arteries and nerves during perimenopause, when atherosclerosis and polyneuropathy may develop against the background of disorders of fat and glucose metabolism10.
Any pain in the bones and joints can intensify before and during menstruation due to a decrease in the anti-inflammatory effect of progesterone and an increase in the pro-inflammatory effect of prostaglandins and other biologically active substances, the concentration of which increases towards the beginning of menstruation10.
General Tips
Salt baths to relieve swelling
Those who are prone to painful conditions during menstruation, including all age groups, should avoid overload during this period.
- Eliminate heavy, high-calorie foods from your diet and give preference to foods rich in vitamins and minerals.
- Don't overload your feet with high heels.
- Salt baths will help relieve swelling.
- Try to sit or lie down with your legs slightly raised more often.
- Traditional medicine recommends warm cabbage leaf wraps, mint and lemon balm teas to relieve pain.
- In the morning, before getting up, it is useful to bandage your legs with an elastic bandage and apply any ointment with an analgesic and anti-inflammatory effect under it.
Medicines to relieve pain should be prescribed by a doctor after consultation; it is quite possible that not just painkillers may be prescribed, but drugs that act on the root cause of the painful condition.
Hip pain
Hip pain in women can be a symptom of surgery on the pelvic organs or gynecological diseases. The pain affects the lower abdomen and radiates to the lumbosacral region, thigh, and lower leg. Any surgical intervention or long-term inflammatory process in the pelvis can lead to the formation of adhesions, painful tension of ligaments and fascia, and changes in the relative position of organs6. During menstruation, the contractile activity of the uterus increases, pain from the “disturbed” organs can spread to the legs7.
Women of childbearing age
Arthrosis of the knee joint at the initial stage
During the period when the formation of the sexual sphere is completed, the woman has reached the peak of childbearing age, and is far from menopause, menstruation in a larger group of women becomes regular and occurs with fewer complications. However, a significant number of complaints about knee pain during menstruation come from women of childbearing age, regardless of the presence or absence of pregnancy and childbirth.
One-time cases of this condition may be associated with prolonged stress on the legs during menstruation, or, conversely, long sitting in one position.
This condition can be caused by an organism weakened by overload and a deficiency of vitamins, iron, and calcium. Swelling and pain in the legs may be associated with the functioning of the reproductive system, or they may simply intensify during menstruation and be caused by completely different reasons.
Individual hormonal characteristics of the body that cause particular sensitivity to pain. Disturbances in nerve regulation processes and imbalance of sex hormones lead to pronounced PMS. This situation can be aggravated by stress and exhaustion of the body as a result of constant low-calorie diets.
A disease caused by the anatomical features of the structure of the genital organs, called algodismenorrhea. Regardless of whether the pathology is congenital or acquired, it provokes a serious condition of a woman during her critical days: headaches and dizziness, abdominal pain spreads to the lower back, hips, groin area, while knees may ache, general weakness and even vomiting occur.
Advanced inflammatory processes in the genital organs can also lead to severe pain not only in the lower back, but also in the legs.
Difficult childbirth, operations, not only gynecological, but also abdominal ones, can lead to minor changes in the location of organs and parts of the skeleton. Unnoticeable at normal times, when the uterus swells during menstruation, these changes can cause pain in the lower part of the skeleton.
Such ailments can be caused by reasons that are not at all related to gynecology. In such cases, knee pain, which initially occurs during an acute period for a woman, begins to appear later and at other times. This includes:
- Problems with the spine.
- Joint diseases.
- Circulatory problems and venous insufficiency.
- Polyneuropathy.
- The condition is aggravated by the development of such concomitant diseases as diabetes mellitus, hernias, thrombophlebitis, sclerosis, tumors.
