Navel, belly button or tummy button, is clinically known as the umbilicus, it is nothing else like a scar in the abdomen exactly in a place where umbilical cord was attached. Everybody has a belly button.
But as any other part of our bodies, it can also make us feel some pain or discomfort every now and then. Because belly button is placed in the middle of abdomen, when we feel pain around belly button it can spread easily over the whole belly. That can make it even more difficult to analyze where the pain is come from.
Have you ever experienced such strange pain in your belly that was located in an area of belly button? That is strange feeling because maybe you would have never thought about belly button pain before. Do you feel it for the first time or it is prolonged already and you feel that strange belly button pain for a long time?
What kind of pain it is? Rather dull or in some situations can be increased sharp pain? Is there any situation when it goes away? Maybe you don`t feel it during the night? Maybe some change of position can brings you some relief from belly button pain? Maybe it is really severe when you wear trousers with too narrow waist?
Probably it is not that type of pains that make you immobile; you can still work and do many other things, sports and so on, but this pain around your belly button is annoying and you cannot stop thinking about it. Of course it can make you worry about your health condition and I guess you would like to know what can be the reason of belly button pain as fast as possible.
You can make an appointment with your family doctor to discuss all of the possibility and causes of a discomfort in the belly button area. But before you call your doctor`s practice please take your time and have a look on 13 the most common causes of the belly button pain. Maybe you can connect this pain with some other symptoms or signals from your body.
Even if you think that belly button pain should just go away without any medical treatment and you do not feel too worried about it, this is good to know what kind of diseases can be associated with belly button discomfort.
First of all let`s try to determine what kind of pain do you suffer in a belly button area.
Is that pain constant or you feeling it every now and then? How long it takes when you experience pain in a belly button? Does it last for few seconds or minutes? Maybe it can be feeling for a long time. Is there something that can help you?
Maybe some medications or homemade remedies can bring you short relief. Where do you feel it, just on the surface of your skin or rather deep in your body? By answering such questions your doctor can get a lot of important information and it will help him to verify how serious medical problem it may be.
These are Common Causes Of The Pain In Belly Button
There are many different issues that can be responsible for your bad feeling in a belly button area. Some of them are minor and not so important problems where any medical help is probably not necessary. But it can be that some serious medical troubles are hidden between belly button pains. Some of the causes of the belly button pain can be so serious that only surgery can resolve a health problem. You need to be aware of it before you will decide to ignore symptoms from your abdomen.
Eating problems
That is very possible that pain in a belly button is caused just by eating too much food. When you eat too much of foods, your belly and stomach can expand significantly. It may put some extra pressure onto your abdomen and this can certainly provoke pain in a belly button area. If not overeating is a problem, sometimes it can be a food poisoning. Then your belly can also expand. A lot of gases are produced. Other common symptoms of food poisoning are nausea, vomiting and often diarrhea. Sometimes fever can be a sign that food was not fresh for instance. In the cases of food poisoning pain in the belly button can also take place and there is nothing special about it. However it may need some special care to you to get better as fast as possible.
Medication side effects
Of course it is difficult to determine whether your pain in belly button is a result of medications you were using or there is another more serious digestive problem you suffer from. But if you are taking some drugs to help a stomach troubles, it can happen that this medication can be responsible for bringing a pain in your belly button area as well. So it can help you or make you feel even worse.
So please take care and if you have any doubts whether medication is safe or not you can always contact with a pharmacist and read carefully leaflet. Of course that is always a good option to make an appointment with your doctor and discuss your medication`s side effects with a specialist. If you have any doubts you need to decide if there is really sense to start such medical treatment when difficult side effects are too strong.
Hernia
Hernia is a situation when one of the abdominal organ (bladder, bowels or intestines for instance) has some kind of weaker place so it can end up that part of your abdominal organ will protrude through a tear in its cavity. So this is called ‘hernia’. As you can imagine in case of hernia pain and tenderness in a belly button area are very common and is rather strong. Such pain can be even worse while walking and especially when you want bending over.
There are multiple several other symptoms that suggest hernia. It is painful bowel movements, heavy feeling in an abdomen area. You can sense some sensitive spot or even lump in an abdomen as well as a pain during urination. In some cases doctor can decide that only surgery can repair the torn tissue in the abdominal area and finally resolve your medical troubles with hernia.
Pregnancy
When you are pregnant your belly is growing very fast. Each month it is bigger and bigger. You probably already feel quite heavy, you can walk slower, move not so easy as before. That is typical that you suffer from several different inconveniences during these special nine months. However some of the situation can make you feel worry about it, but most of the time some kind of discomfort is rather normal. So your belly is big, sometimes you cannot believe it is so big that you cannot imagine that it needs to grow still a little bit. Actually it is very normal situation that you feel some kind of pain around your abdomen area during pregnancy.
It can be a belly button pain as well. Most of the time it is because your baby is growing, your belly is growing so it can give you such belly button discomfort. And it is probably completely all right. However if that pain is making you worrying about it or it such pain lasts for a long time it should be better to check if there is not a sign that something is going wrong with a pregnancy.
Ulcers
Ulcers can be formed when lining of your stomach is destroyed and the acids from outside escape. That damage tissue around it. When you have problems with ulcers, you can feel sharp pain in an abdomen and a belly button as well. If you experience ulcer, there is a big chance that pain in a belly button area is certain. Such situation needs to be analyzed by a doctor. If you will not cure ulcers it can lead to internal bleeding and large damage of stomach tissue.
Eating spicy food is not recommended as it can make the pain even worse. It will also speed up process of tissue damaging. In this situation you need to contact a specialist to get special medications and also to discuss a problem, to get known how to avoid ulcers in a future.
Pancreatic problems
The pancreas is responsible for keep right sugar level in our bodies just to keep us well energized. Medical problems around pancreas can result in a fever episodes, headaches, nausea and vomiting as well as pain in an area of belly button. Some symptoms can be similar to diabetes indications. If you think that a belly button pain is somehow connected with a pancreatic problem you cannot ignore it. You need to discuss it with a family doctor and search for a right treatment.
Crohn`s disease
Crohn`s disease is an inflammatory disorder of the bowel. It is a serious disease that can affect mostly young people. There are several different symptoms of Crohn`s disease, all of them are quite unspecific what makes it difficult to fast diagnose of Crohn`s disease. So when you have this illness you can suffer for a severe pain of the abdomen, it can be in a belly button area.
You will also loss of weigh, you will have a strong diarrhea problem, and blood in the stools can appear. At this moment there is no good medication to cure Crohn`s disease. Of course this illness needs to be treated by specialist, often in a hospital conditions. So be aware that pain in the belly button can be connected sometimes with a very serious and painful disease.
All of the above medical problems are combined with a pain in the belly button. And most of the time one of them is really responsible for pain in the belly button area. But you need to remember that there is also some other less common causes of pain in the belly button. Let`s try to have a look and try to analyze what other illness can be connected with belly button pain.
Less Common Causes Of The Pain In The Belly Button
Some other not so popular causes are listed here. Remember to consult your troubles with a doctor to get more specific diagnosis.
Urinary tract infection UTI (cystisis)
It can be that dull pain around belly button is caused by urinary tract infection (UTI). Some people experiences quite often regular urinary tract infection, but there is also a group of people that tend to have one type of urinary tract infection (UTI) that is named Cystisis. Urinary tract infection can be referred also as cystisis. Such infection can spread to the other parts of your body, such as kidneys, over time. Cystisis is more common in women than men.
It can give you a pain around belly button area. But this is not the most common symptoms for urinary tract infection, usually you can experience strong pain when you are urinating, urine can be cloudy or even bloody. You need to contact doctor as fast as possible to do urine analysis in a laboratory. Such infection most of the time needs to be cured with antibiotics. So make an appointment with your doctor.
Stomach infections
Troubles around the stomach are the most common and probably the best analyzed cause of the pain in the belly button area. Stomach infections can be bacterial as well as viral. It can give symptoms like a stomach flu, so nausea and vomiting. Sometimes very high fever can appear, you can feel extremely weak and tired. Of course appointment in a doctor practice is much recommended. Maybe some medications (antibiotics) will be necessary.
Surgery
It can also happen that you will experience pain in the belly button area just after you have had abdominal surgery. It can be sometimes severe; it can be mild type of pain. One thing is for sure, when your body will recovery after surgery, all belly button`s pain should disappear. You can use painkillers to bring some relief. Of course if that will stay and the pain will not disappear fast you should inform your doctor. There is all the time some chance that belly button pain is caused by different medical condition.
Gallstones
It is called also gallbladder disease. Usually people are not aware of such problem as gallstones until it will induce a severe pain around belly button area. Gallstones occur because of the inflammation in the gallbladder. When gallstones are an issue it can cause mild to severe pain of the abdomen. Pain can be located somewhere around belly button as well. Symptoms of gallstones can be different, but most often unspecific nausea and vomiting may occur, as well as fever, bloating and jaundice or very rapid heart rate. The pain can also move toward the shoulder.
When the stone have blocked the bile flow the pain will be very intense. But there are many ways to treat gallstones, it can be surgically removed or successfully treated with various medications. Your doctor should determine if medications and change of your lifestyle will soften your symptoms significantly or only surgery can help.
Small intestine disorders
As a small intestine centers close to the belly button, all kind of problems with small intestine will demonstrate among others with severe pain in the belly button area. So you can suffer from constipation, also fever and nausea. Sometimes vomiting can occur. Intestine troubles like a kink in the intestines, an infection or other diseases can also result in a belly button pain. Make an appointment with your family doctor so he can figure out what is going on and what is causing such belly button area pain and symptoms.
Appendicitis
For a long time appendix was thought to be not needed by our bodies. But sometimes this part can get inflammation and this causes appendicitis. The pain then is a very severe. And it is also seriously dangerous situation that can even lead to death.
Diagnosis And Treatment Of Belly Button Pain
Of course proper diagnosis of pain in a belly button area is crucial. Without the right diagnosis of the problem it will be extremely difficult to try some medical treatment in the case of such unspecific pain in not so standard location as a belly button. Proper diagnosis is important also because it can help to stop your belly button pain from being even worse when not treated.
When you visit your doctor you need to talk with him precisely. You should describe your problem in the best way you can. That will help a lot. Doctor will probably order more accurate tests to find out what is the problem. The echo of belly and blood and urine laboratory analysis can give a hint what is going on. But you should also talk with specialist about all other different medical troubles you have, so that can be some more serious medical problem not only belly button pain.
When you will have a correct diagnosis, it is time to start with medical treatment. If you overeat and that is the reason of the belly button pain you should make starvation diet for some time and that can be enough to feel well again. Of course you need to be sure you do not have any allergies to food or medications you are using. If yes, just stop to eat food that give you allergic symptoms or stop taking medication that is not good for you. For a hernia diagnosis there is always a surgery the best option for treatment. If the pain is because of more serious diseases like cancer or Crohn`s disease the treatment is always more tricky and difficult.
So as you can see there are plenty of different reasons why you may experience pain in a belly button area. Most of the time such pain is of short duration and does not all the time is evidence of something serious in your heath condition. Pain in a belly button surrounds is generally pain located in your abdomen, just in the middle of your belly.
Because of that localization of belly button you could expect that feeling pain in a belly button region can be difficult to diagnose, as it can be linked to so many various problems with multiple organs found in your abdomen. When you think that belly button`s pain is for you too strong or you cannot stop to think about it, you should clearly visit your family doctor as fast as possible.
Probably doctor will prescribe you some medications but it can be that simply lifestyle changes can already be very effective when you struggle with belly button pain. Finding time to relax and time for your hobby, eating more healthy food, adding some sport to your daily life, all together should have a great positive effect for all different diseases you deal with.
Does not matter how serious your disease is, such small and easy things can visible increase your life`s comfort. Of course together with a proper medical treatment it can help you feel better and forget about the belly button pain.
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