mittelschmerz

mittelschmerz

English

Etymology

German Mittelschmerz

Noun

mittelschmerz (uncountable)

1. Lower abdominal and pelvic pain that occurs roughly midway through the menstrual cycle, during ovulation.
   • 2004, Katie Singer, The Garden of Fertility: A Guide to Charting Your Fertility Signals to Prevent Or Achieve Pregnancy--naturally--and to Gauge Your Reproductive Health, Penguin (→ISBN), page 27:

     The feeling might last a few minutes or a few hours. Some women mark the times when they experience mittelschmerz in the miscellaneous section of their chart. Fertility indicators, available online or over the counter, also measure ...

   • 2017, Mark Nethercote, A Time for Grace, Simon and Schuster (→ISBN)

     Only about one in five women experience mittelschmerz, and Suse is one of those women.

   • 2019, Amanda Laird, Heavy Flow: Breaking the Curse of Menstruation, Dundurn (→ISBN), page 90:

     German for “mid pain,” mittelschmerz is the medical term for painful ovulation. For some, it may be dull and cramp-like, while others experience mittelschmerz as a sharp, sudden, “stabbing” pain.