Presentation of symptoms with endometriosis is variable. I was always taught that someone with the most severe endometriosis can be asymptomatic and someone with the tiniest amount can have severe pain. The most common symptom is pelvic pain, especially with periods.
patients have not had any imaging to show they even have a current cyst. Or they have been seen in the emergency department recently and were told that a cyst could be causing their pain. As you can imagine, the answer is not always so clear. Why is that? Because it is natural for women of reproductive age to make cysts each month! So the emergency room provider, if they do not find anything emergent, will often tell you it could be the little cyst causing your pain.
Pelvic pain and lower abdominal pain (outside of pregnancy) is by far one of the most common reasons women see our providers for appointments. I thought it would be nice to write a series of blogs about the different gynecological etiologies of pelvic pain to add a resource for you to refer back to, were you to experience this type of discomfort in the future. This blog will serve as an introduction to pelvic pain and let you know how we think about the different causes and do a gynecological specific work up.
