Abdominal pain in incredibly common, everyone will have suffered from it at some point in their lives. It is often called stomachache, tummy ache, gut ache or belly ache. It can be mild or severe, continuous or comes and goes. It can be acute, short-lived or chronic, occurs over weeks, months or years.

You should see a doctor is the pain is so severe you are unable to stand, or if it accompanied by some other worrisome symptoms such as fever, bloody stools, persistent nausea, vomiting, weight loss, jaundice, severe tenderness of the abdomen or swelling of the abdomen.

Abdominal pain can be caused by many things, the most common include indigestion a pulled muscle or gas pains, there are not often serious.

With other conditions may need to see a doctor. To determine the cause, you will need to be aware of the location of the pain, and how long you have been suffering.

Some causes of acute abdominal pain are an abdominal aortic aneurysm, appendicitis, cystitis, diverticulitis, ectopic pregnancy, heart attack, injury, kidney infection, pancreatitis, pleurisy, pneumonia, ruptured spleen, urinary tract infection or viral gastroenteritis.

Some conditions that could cause chronic abdominal pain are angina, celiac disease, endometriosis, gallstones, gastritis, hiatal hernia, irritable bowel syndrome, ovarian cysts, sickle cell anemia or ulcerative colitis.

If your pain is progressive, steadily worsens over time, and is accompanied by the development of other symptoms it is usually serious. Some causes could be an enlarged spleen, gallbladder cancer, hepatitis, lead poisoning, liver cancer, Non-Hodgkin’s lymphoma, pancreatic cancer or stomach cancer.

Treatment will depend on the cause and severity of your abdominal pain.