So with staging of endometriosis, it's staged by how much the endo will impact fertility, not by pain and so forth. Endo is weird in that someone with stage one may have severe pain while someone with stage four experiences no symptoms and finds out they have it when they struggle to have children.

As for your bowel and bladder question, I myself experience some pain with bowel movements but it's not every time. Depending on where the endo is, it can be inflaming digestive organs and causing issue or you may have irritable bowel syndrome. Some people with endo get IC which is when the lining inside of the bladder is inflamed. This could be the source of your pain while urinating but it also could be endo or both or something completely different.

No, it definitely doesn't mean that you are stage IV.. I recently had laparoscopy in May to have endometriomas (chocolate cysts) removed from both ovaries... unfortunately I went to a specialist more recently because I am still experience pain and he told me that I have another cyst in my right ovary again so I am scheduled to have a second surgery next week, but he told me I am stage III and endometriomas can begin at any stage... so don't worry, pain isn't always indicative of what stage you are... I highly suggested you see a specialist. The first surgeon I went to wasn't and didn't get everything.. which is why I am having a second.. GOOD LUCK!!!

That sounds awful, I'm sorry to hear you have had so much discomfort 🙁 You may consider scheduling a consult with an endo excision specialist because a lot of ob/gyns are kind of clueless about endo. The Facebook group Nancy's Nook has a list of excision specialists, so that could be a place to look if you're not familiar with any specialists. Good luck! 💛

Thank you so much! Also, do you experience pain with bowel and bladder movement?

Thank you! I will definitely look into that.