Ovarian
Pain:
An Overlooked Cause and Possible Treatment
Overview
If you have pain
in your ovaries, you should always seek treatment and diagnosis from a
doctor. There can be many serious causes of ovarian pain including ectopic
pregnancies, cysts and cancer. In my case my doctors were stymied over
the cause of my pain, but research on my part has led me to believe now
that it was caused by a deficiency of vitamin K.
My Personal
Experience
Several years
ago I had excruciating pain in my right ovary. I went to my doctor and
who ordered a sonogram. Upon completion of the sonogram, I was told my
right ovary was "plumper" than my left ovary, but that happened
sometimes. Despite my severe pain, I was told I was fine and there was
nothing to worry about. At one point the pain was so severe I even ended
up in the emergency room, but the emergency room doctors could not find
any specific cause. A doctor I saw later on said that my right ovary being
plumper than the left one was a sign of ovarian cysts. He told me that
that the size difference was exactly what they should have been looking
out for on the sonogram results. In hindsight, I tend to think the second
doctor's diagnosis was most likely the correct one.
At the time I
was having the ovarian pain I was also having many bleeding problems including
nose bleeds, menorrhagia,
easy bruising, eye hemorrhages, hematuria (blood in my urine) etc. The
doctors kept sending me to different specialists for each issue, but it
was clear to me that something systemic was going on. My blood simply
was not clotting.
Eventually I figured
out from reading health books that I had a vitamin K deficiency. When
I changed my diet to include more vitamin K rich foods, my bleeding problems
stopped and to my surprise my ovarian pain also cleared up. Prior to my
bleeding problems, a well intentioned but nutritionally ignorant doctor
had put me on vitamin E supplements for breast cysts. The cysts cleared
up, but I eventually developed bleeding problems
from a vitamin K deficiency, brought on by the vitamin E supplements.
I know now that vitamin E is known for thinning the blood and acts as
a blocker for vitamin K. (Vitamin K is the main nutrient responsible for
clotting the blood. The "K" in vitamin K comes from the Danish
word for coagulation.)
Medical Papers
Linking Vitamin K Deficiency to Ovarian Hemorrhage
Click here for
a study I found on Pubmed cautioning doctors that "Ovarian
hemorrhage with hemoperitoneum is a rare but serious complication
of ovulation related to rupture of either the corpus luteum or functional
cyst. It is due to treatment using oral indirect anticoagulant
and specifically affects young women." In this paper ovarian hemorrhage
of the patients was brought on by anticoagulants. Anticoagulants, like
vitamin E, also block vitamin K. In my case I was taking vitamin E rather
than anticoagulants, but I think that perhaps net result was similar -
the resulting vitamin K deficiency played havoc with my right ovary.
I also found another
related paper on Pubmed linking ovarian cysts to a vitamin K deficiency
brought on by anticoagulant therapy, In this study the authors noted,
a "
Hemorrhagic follicular cyst of the left ovary. An unusual complication
of anticoagulant treatment."
In another paper
from France, three patients had ovarian
hemorrhage from taking Warfarin, another anticoagulant.
Causes and
Treatments That Worked for My Pain
So whether I had
ovarian cysts at the time of my last sonogram or not is unknown. One doctor
thought I didn't, another one thought for sure I did. But I do know for
sure that I had excruciating pain in my ovary when my blood was thin and
not clotting, and the pain cleared up when I got more vitamin K into my
system and my blood began clotting normally again. Even now, if I eat
a lot of blood thinning foods, the pain in my ovary will return. It is
not as bad as I have had it in the past, but a mild pain still returns
sometimes if I eat certain foods, or combinations of foods.
My pain will go
away if I eat foods high in vitamin K. Any type of food that tends to
clot my blood seems to help me. Lately I have been having steamed broccoli
and that works out great.
Foods That
Have Triggered Ovarian Pain for Me:
- The number one trigger is
coffee, followed by herbal teas
- Onions
- Salad dressings with a
lot of vinegar
- Garlic
- Ginger
- Cayenne Pepper
- Salsa
- Blueberries
- Watermelon
- Anything high in salicylates
(spices, fruits, nuts, aspirin)
Foods That
Reduce My Ovarian Pain:
- Most leafy green vegetables,
especially steamed broccoli
Technically, I suspect that
taking supplements with probiotics would help, too, since they contain
bacteria that produce vitamin K inside
your body. I've taken probiotics in the past for other health reasons,
but I've never tried those types of supplements specifically for pain
in my ovary.
Summary
There are many possible causes
of ovarian pain including cysts, ectopic pregnancy and cancer. The condition
should always be evaluated by a doctor. Vitamin K is a possible, and perhaps
not well known, cause of ovarian pain. A number of medical papers have
noted a link between ovarian hemorrhage and anticoagulant therapy. Long
term use of anticoagulants may cause a vitamin K deficiency. In my case
I developed bleeding problems and ovarian pain from vitamin E therapy.
Vitamin E thins the blood, so like anticoagulants, long term usage may
also cause a vitamin K deficiency. In my case eating vitamin K rich foods
eliminated by vitamin K deficiency and alleviated my ovarian pain.
Caution: People taking anticoagulants,
or those with any type of blood clots or other health conditions, should
not increases vitamin K rich foods in their diets without supervision
of their physician.
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