Hello everyone! I was just recently diagnosed with endometriosis after spending a long time trying to figure out why I was in pain. I have spent the last few years dealing with increasingly painful periods which included shedding large clots and clumps and spotting in between periods. I had sever pain that would cause me to double over. I figured it was just a part of getting older and having had 5 pregnancies. Then in the last two years I started having to strain incredibly to move my bowels all for very little product. I began to experience pain in my lower left side that radiates to my back so that it feels like an arrow is going through me from front to back. In 1999 I had a extremely large ovarian cyst which had to be surgically removed and caused me to miscarry. Since then, all of this I just described kept me going back and forth to my family practice doctor and gyno to ensure I didn't have another cyst, always with no cysts resulting. So, April 2007 I went to my family practice doc again with horrible pain, and severe bloating. I was sent for an abdominal x-ray and was diagnosed with constipation. I started increasing my fiber and water intakes. Ok, so maybe my fiber and water wasn't what it should've been, but here it is November 2007, and I have the same problems! Well, I went in October 2007 for my annual gyno exam and mentioned that this pain and also the fact that it has been hurting during sex, especially with deeper penetration (sorry if TMI!). She referred me to a downtown civilian gyno (I'm military) who was able to determine that my uterus is the most effected by pain. He seemed to want to avoid the endo word, as if it was something horrible, but it's my diagnosis none the less. He's started me on an antibiotic for suspected uterine infection and an antiinflammatory to use when I feel the pain is worse during the month. He is also referring me to a vaginal physical therapist. Anyone ever been to one?? The next step if I get no relief from the pain is to start on a birth control pill to stop my period for at least 3 months to see if the pain is better. I have no idea what to expect with all of this, or what to question, or anything! I want to ask my mother why she had her hysterectomy, but we're not on good terms. Is endo genetic?