Understanding New and Severe Abdominal Pain

In this guide, we will start by identifying where you feel the pain most strongly. The middle third refers to an up-and-down stripe from the bottom center of your ribs, down through your navel (belly button) and ending above your pelvic bone. The sides of the abdomen refer to the outer one-third on each side of the middle third.

When your body was first forming as an embryo, a part of your development included the "migration" or rearrangement of several of your body organs. The nerves that connected to your organs did not re-wire as the organs rearranged. For this reason, some organs cause pain in a location different from where they are now located.

A specific location of pain in your abdomen is a very valuable clue, but it does not always lay blame on the organs that are located in its vicinity.

Please select the location where your pain is felt most strongly:

In the middle third of my abdomen

On one side or the other

All over my abdomen