First, the background. I am 46 years old and think I am perimenopausal because I am ovulating much less often and my periods, although still fairly regular, have suddenly become much heavier.
However, long before this happened, I started having problems with truly awful ovulation pain for a couple of days each month; I have had a couple of ovarian cysts burst and bleed but my gyn said that's just one of those things that happen sometimes (with fever too, I suppose, as happened on one occasion). I have always had painful periods, but the pain too has got worse of late (it's especially bad if I miss a period; I find myself passing gigantic pieces of endometrium the size of my thumb). Taking the contraceptive pill helped to a large extent, but I have had to stop taking it because I have a higher than average risk of stroke (high blood pressure and other stuff).
On top of all that, I get pain in the pelvic area during and after deep sexual penetration, I have difficulty emptying my bladder completely and it also hurts when I pass stool (not like when you have piles, more of a crampy pain higher up, it feels as if my bowel and womb were stuck together, silly though that might sound).
The gyn did a transvaginal and lower abdominal ultrasound and said everything looks fine??!! Now I am wondering if this might be endometriosis, as I understand that might not show up on an ultrasound?