if it's endo you need hormone control or surgery nothing else will work. the ovaries still produce hormones and that drives the lesions inside you to breakdown and bleed, spreading the lesions even more. did the doc's try seasonale/jolessa? it is the lowest BC pill, i have a strong breast cancer background and this is the only pill i can take because it has such low estrogen. you need to be EXTREMELY careful when exercising if you have endo. the lesions cause your insides to attach to each other and stretching, lifting etc...can cause internal injuries. there is a pro dancer on DWS who found out she had endo after a dance workout, can't remember her name but she also is into singing now. she hurt her rightside and it turned out to be endo had caused her appendix to get twisted up and was attached to something else. if you had endo on the bowels and intestines you know what kind of damage that does internally. i have a really bad area in my left hip, it's so painful i almost have a slight drag on that leg when walking. those lesions could be anywhere from the lungs down, thou most likely on the hip ligaments. my docs warned me to not do much stretching, yoga or tai chi (all exercise classes i take) on that leg because i may have intestines, an ovary, ligaments or veins entangled causing pain. i too do not want to take pain meds. i do not metabilize script pain meds well, they affect me much more than they should, so i stick to ibuprophen 800mg doses. but until last summer when i had a period, i was totally off everything for 2 yrs straight cuz i had the hormones completely suppressed. i had to laugh when you mentioned applying heat. i used to use 1-2 of those stick on therma care heat things a day, i used to say i should own their stock i spent sooo much $$ on their product :-( you might check your library for books on endo i have several, i even joined the endo society to get info and into support groups manys yrs ago when i was first diagnosed. definitely call the doc...i'll be thinking about you ~ liz

Hi Marion, I think it's going to be hard for you to make a decision, based on everyone else's experience. I have found that women really vary, as to their responses to having hysterectomies. I think everyone should take having their uterus removed very seriously. It isn't like having your appendix out. It is so much more complicated. I understand your doc's concern about your ovaries. BUT.......if you don't have a family history of ovarian cancer, and you have occasional trans-vaginal ultrasound, I think leaving your ovaries alone is probably best. You could possibly use them for at least another 10 years. I wish there was an easy, cut-and-dried answer for you, but there's not. It's almost a trial and error thing........you'll have to make a choice, and see how it goes. But don't always assume the doctor's suggestions about cutting things out is the best. Good luck to you!

You know, I actually had my left ovary removed at age 46 due to cramping pain in it off and on, plus really bad cramps in it during my periods. It did have a big cyst on it that had stayed there for months in spite of bc pills, so I thought that was the cause of my pain and so did my surgeon. Well, afterwards, I was surprised to find out that I STILL had pain in the region where my left ovary had been! By coincidence, I discovered that when I took a diuretic pill, the pain went away. I was the kind that always got a lot of pelvic bloat pre-period. I think the bloat pressed on a pelvic nerve, and that is what caused the pain. I'm now menopausal and on HRT, so I still get pelvic bloat when I go on the progesterone part of my "cycle", and I still get pain in the "left ovary" region at times. Once in a while the bloat has been bad enough that I felt like I had to pee all the time even though I did not have a urinary infection. I would also have a feeling of numbness "down there". I discovered that a diuretic relieved all that, so it must be a nerve compression thing. I guess when I got older, the spinal disks settled down and created a narrower channel for the nerve to go through. Now, I don't say that this is the cause of every woman's ovary pain, of course, but it might be for a few. Wouldn't hurt to try a diuretic to see if the pain is relieved, though.

Thanks Marie for sharing. My mother died of Ovarian Cancer at the age of 44 and I was 16 so I remember she did have symptoms (bloated, frequency of urination, smelly and a lot of gas when going to the bathroom, bad periods all her life but when she died she had not had a period for about 10 years due to the hysterectomy, etc.) but no one knew they were Ovarian Cancer Symptoms until she was in the last stages of Ovarian cancer (all of her body was bloated and filled with cancerous fluid ... went to the hospital for exploratory surgery to see why was looking pregnant and so swollen with fluid). They should have known to check for Ovarian Cancer since in her 30's she had a hysterectomy due to an ovarian noncancerous tumor but the doctors left one ovary that later did become cancerous. I am age 45 and I am always sick with my period but so far the tests do not show I have cancer.