What Causes Nausea and Vomiting?

What causes nausea and vomiting? Is it harmful to my health? And how do I know when to contact a doctor? 

These are questions that most women ask themselves. In this article, we are going to deal with each of these questions.

What Causes Nausea and Vomiting?

The simplest and most straight forward answer is that it depends. 

In some cases it is a symptom of a disease, which may be serious or not, a sign of a condition such as pregnancy; and in some cases, it can be a sign that you are simply uncomfortable – think of motion sickness that results from wearing some types of virtual reality gadgets or that results from traveling on a boat.

In short, the cause of nausea and vomiting can be either psychological or physiological. Disorientation can cause nausea and vomiting. So can food poisoning. So can chemotherapy. And so can serious medical complications such as the rupturing of an ovarian cyst.

How do you know what is really causing your nausea and vomiting?

 

The best and easiest way of telling the root cause of your nausea is to take note of the things that took place before and after you started feeling nauseous. 

Right after a meal?

If you start experiencing nausea immediately after a meal, the problem is related to your digestive system. In such a case, you may be suffering from gastritis or it may be that the walls of your stomach are not functioning as they should, a condition commonly referred to as gastroparesis. Food poisoning is also a common cause of nausea, and this is likely the case especially if you start experiencing nausea after several hours of taking a meal.

If you start experiencing nausea immediately after smelling some food or some smells, it may be that you simply don’t like the smells or the foods. Or to be more exact, your brain doesn’t like the smell.

Weeks after unprotected sex?

If you start experiencing nausea sometime after having unprotected sex, it may be time to reach out for a pregnancy kit. It is likely that your body is releasing a host of hormones in a bid to prepare your body for pregnancy and that these hormones may be to blame for the bouts of nausea and vomiting that you are experiencing.

During or right after traveling or after using a gadget?

The likely cause is motion sickness. Sea travel is the most notorious for causing nausea. And so are some gadgets especially those that have tend to deal with virtual reality. These things cause nausea simply because they mess with your brain’s orientation sensors.

After chemotherapy or after taking certain medications?

Chemotherapy can induce bouts of nausea and vomiting. And so can some medications. This is because they mess with the way the body normally functions. It may be that they are messing with the body’s hormonal balance, the stomach’s ability to hold its contents or the way your brain processes signals. It may also be that you simply don’t like the smell of certain medications.

A symptom of diseases or certain medical conditions

This is usually the cases when nausea and vomiting is coupled with other symptoms. It may be headaches, pelvic or abdominal pain, bleeding and so on. In such cases, it is advisable that you visit a doctor as soon as possible for further check-up.

Here is a list of common medical conditions which have nausea and vomiting as a common symptom: brain trauma, pancreatitis, viral infections, cholecystitis, bilumia nervosa, crohns disease, intracranial hematoma, hepatitis, thyroid complications, meningitis, peptic ulcers, pancreatic cancer meniere’s disease, ear infections and intestinal ischemia. Even ovarian cysts can cause nausea and vomiting.

Performing further medical tests is the only way to determine the exact cause of the nausea that you are experiencing. A doctor is therefore the only person who is best suited when it comes to telling you the exact cause of your nausea and vomiting problems.

To know more about your reproductive health, watch this

 

Why Do Ovarian Cysts Cause Nausea

There are a host of symptoms that ovarian cysts cause. According to Mayo Clinic, nausea and vomiting is one of them.

The real question is how does a growth in the ovaries cause this effect? There are two theories as to how this happens. Here they are:

Ovarian cysts produce hormones

This theory is based on the fact that ovarian cysts develop when an ovary’s follicle fails to shrink and disappear after releasing an egg. What this means is that an ovarian cyst is just but a follicle that has been filled with fluid.

But follicles aren’t just dormant parts of an ovary. They are the parts that are responsible for the production of progesterone and estrogen – the same hormones that usually prepare the body for pregnancy.

Cysts are abnormal follicles. It should therefore be no surprise that they can release abnormal amounts of these hormones. And it is also no surprise that the presence of ovarian cysts can cause pregnancy-like symptoms of nausea and vomiting.

Ovarian cysts affect the functioning of the ovaries

The second theory has to do with the fact that ovarian cysts are an unplanned for occurrence in the female reproductive system.

Cysts on ovaries are abnormal growths. They may grow in the ovaries. They can also grow on the ovaries.

Their presence in and outside the ovaries affects the way the ovaries function. And given the role that ovaries play when it comes to regulating the hormonal balance in the body, people with cysts are bound to experience hormonal balance problems. This is what may be to blame for the cases of nausea and vomiting in women who have cysts in their ovaries.

It doesn’t happen to everyone

Like all the other symptoms of ovarian cysts, not everyone experiences this symptom.

Most women in fact never experience any side effects of the presence of cysts. Given the nature of the cysts, where they grow and the individual genetic make-up of a woman, she may or may not experience nausea or vomiting caused by ovarian cysts.

And even on women who experience these symptoms, they may manifest in different ways. Some may experience them in isolation. Others may experience them in addition to other symptoms such as abdominal pelvic pain, vaginal discharge and so on.

It is to blame for the confusion

The tendency of ovarian cysts causing nausea and vomiting has been a leading cause of confusion. Women with cysts sometimes think that their cyst-generated nausea is a sign of pregnancy. And in cases where the woman in question has a distended abdomen as a result of a large cyst, believing this illusion is easier. This is a confusion that can be easily settled with a  pregnancy kit or a visit to the doctor.

For more information on infertility, pregnancy and ovarian cysts, read this