Signs and symptoms of pancreatitis in women

Symptoms of pancreatitis in women will help to notice the disease as early as possible in order to begin timely treatment.

From the article you will learn about the main signs of chronic and acute pancreatitis, and also understand what treatment is needed to eliminate this disease.

Features of the disease

Pancreatitis is called inflammation of the pancreas. This organ is located below the stomach, under the duodenum, and is necessary in the process of digestion.

In addition, the pancreas helps regulate blood glucose levels. With inflammation of this organ, the whole organism is disrupted, since it affects the various processes occurring in it.

Pancreatitis can not be called a rare disease - they suffer from men and women, even at a young age. It can have two forms: acute and chronic.

In acute pancreatitis, inflammation of the organ occurs suddenly, it can affect both the entire pancreas and just some part of it.

In some cases, the appearance of acute pancreatitis can be dangerous to human life, as it often entails internal bleeding, abscesses, etc.

Chronic pancreatitis is more common in patients. This type of disease is characterized by an unstable course - inflammation then fades, then appears again, progressing rather slowly.

Chronic pancreatitis is no less dangerous than acute pancreatitis, because without treatment it leads to tissue organ atrophy.

Over time, it is cicatrized, as a result of which the pancreas can no longer perform its functions.

Chronic pancreatitis is divided into two types: primary and secondary. In the first case, inflammation is initially localized in the pancreas.

In the secondary type of the disease, inflammation develops as a result of an earlier pathology of one of the organs of the digestive system, for example, stomach ulcers.

In some cases acute pancreatitis may develop in place of chronic secondary pancreatitis, which is also caused by diseases or exacerbations of diseases of the liver, stomach, gall bladder, etc.

Very often, the causes of pancreatitis lie in the wrong way of life. In about half of cases, it appears in men and women prone to overeating, frequent consumption of fatty, fried and other "heavy" food, the systematic intake of alcohol.

Sometimes the causes of the development of the disease are diseases of the internal organs, for example, a stomach ulcer or gallbladder inflammation, and sometimes the causes of the onset of the disease are heredity and stress.

Most often, the disease develops in middle-aged people, from 40 years and older, but can also occur in young men and women under 30 years.

In addition to people who have harmful eating habits and are prone to alcohol consumption, pregnant women or newly-born women are also at high risk - during this period some of them develop a tendency to develop acute pancreatitis.

Symptoms of the disease

Women can develop both chronic and acute pancreatitis, however, during pregnancy and some time after delivery, the acute form of the disease is more often manifested.

Signs of acute pancreatic inflammation:

1. severe abdominal pain;
2. nausea;
3. thirst;
4. sticky sweat;
5. pallor of the skin.

At the first manifestations of an attack, you should immediately call a doctor - although the mortality of pregnant women from acute pancreatitis is extremely low, not more than 1%, this risk still exists.

In addition, timely access to a doctor will help to avoid surgical intervention.

Most often, an acute form of the disease occurs in women with gallbladder disease and problems with the outflow of bile.

This condition can worsen during pregnancy, so at the stage of planning it is desirable to undergo a full medical examination and restore the damaged organs.

Chronic pancreatitis can occur with the same frequency in both women and men. In most people with this problem, the first symptoms are similar: the stomach hurts, weight decreases, the person is tormented by diarrhea and fatigue.

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More common signs are nausea, sometimes with vomiting. After vomiting, nausea appears again. This symptom is not very common and indicates a neglected form of the disease.

Often, the course of chronic pancreatitis is accompanied by diabetes mellitus, which arises from the violation of blood glucose levels, as well as jaundice.

Other common signs of illness are bloating caused by an enlarged organ. Most often with palpation in the pancreas, a person will experience painful sensations - this allows you to put a preliminary diagnosis even without additional tests.

Changes in the color of the skin( blueness, yellowness) indicates either the acute stage of the disease, or its neglected chronic course - in both cases, a person needs urgent help.

The most characteristic sign is the appearance of cyanosis near the navel, and also on the sides of the abdomen.

Yellowness can be observed not only on the skin, but also on the whites of the eyes, due to the violation of the outflow of bile - in this case often turns out that pancreatitis is a consequence of the heavy defeat of the gallbladder.

Symptoms of chronic alcoholic pancreatitis are most pronounced after consuming alcohol, spicy or fatty foods, acid fruits and other foods that irritate the body.

The initial stages for chronic alcoholic pancreatitis are characterized by constipation and diarrhea. Problems with stools arise from the violation of outflow of bile and pathologies of the large intestine. After drinking alcohol, there may be diarrhea, sharp pain in the side.

Without treatment, chronic alcoholic pancreatitis and with continued use of pancreatic tissue die of alcohol, inflammation progresses, which results in an abscess and death of the body. This condition is already critical and requires an urgent call to the doctor.

Help pancreatitis

Exceptionally home treatment of chronic and acute pancreatitis is not possible - definitely need to see a doctor who after examining authority will appoint the best possible treatment to restore it.

Depending on the severity of the damage, pancreatitis can be treated both in the hospital and at home.

For pregnant women, who are mainly diagnosed with an attack of acute pancreatitis, they usually prescribe inpatient treatment.

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It can be both medical and surgical - with a strong organ damage, doctors prescribe surgery to remove part of the damaged pancreas and gall bladder, which is caused by abnormalities often attack of acute pancreatitis.

In case of severe injuries and subsequent surgery, some women after the intervention may be prescribed insulin intake, which helps to normalize blood sugar level.

Chronic pancreatitis also often requires hospitalization of the patient. For women with symptoms of chronic pancreatitis, if it is in the early stages, usually prescribed home treatment.

Treatment of the disease consists not only in the restoration of the body and the preservation of still intact tissues, but also in eliminating the causes that cause inflammation, otherwise no sense of therapy will not bring.

The main causes of chronic pancreatitis are harmful food and alcohol. They must be abandoned, especially if the disease is already at the last stages of development.

As a rule, signs of pancreatitis after rejection of the factors causing them become much less pronounced, and if the disease is in an easy stage, then they can disappear altogether.

The diet is a necessary stage of treatment of chronic pancreatitis. Observe it is necessary not only after an attack: it is desirable to adhere to it constantly, it will reduce inflammation and protect the body from repeated attacks of the disease.

To remove pain during an attack, anti-inflammatory and pain medications, such as No-shpa, Atropine, Chlorizol, will help.

However, they need to be taken only if the diagnosis was made by a doctor.

If the pills do not help and the stomach still hurts, you should always call a doctor, because in later stages, inflammation can lead to internal bleeding and other life-threatening manifestations.

Professional treatment of pancreatitis is usually performed with enzyme preparations such as Creon, Pancitrat, Festal, etc.

They repair damaged pancreatic tissue and normalize its functioning. If other organs, in particular the gall bladder, are damaged, then the patient may be prescribed choleretic preparations.

At home, you can supplement the treatment with herbal remedies that soothe inflammation and improve tissue regeneration.

However, the most important in the treatment of chronic pancreatitis is to abandon bad habits, because they are the real causes of the disease.