A pain in the airplane

A woman dear to me was recently treated for abdominal pain, and after multiple tests was told by her doctor that what she had was messerschmitts. She passed this information along to me. I explained the mistake, but out of curiosity I did a little googling around the tubes of the interweb and turned up more references to women being told by doctors or other helpful sources they had messerschmitts. I felt compelled to post (in between chuckles) the correct name for this malady. Perhaps the next googler who gets told she's got the dreaded messerschimtts will find this.

I'm not insensitive to these women's pain. I share such pain on a pretty much monthly basis. But Messerschmitt was a German airplane manufacturer. What these women are experiencing is called mittelschmerz (sometimes spelled mittleschmertz) a German word that translates to "middle pain". I can say from experience that it's not fun. But it's bound to be better than a case of abdominal aircraft.