Could be womanhood, could be chronic pain

I remember thinking last week that my ovulation was possibly late, since I hadn't felt anything of the usual symptoms yet. The next day said symptoms started, however. Today it seems that I'm finally on the tail end of another fresh ovulation event which left me with a swollen, painful abdomen, sharp pain and sensitive skin on my abdomen's right side, hips and a numbness in my right leg. Yesterday I mostly spent the day feeling nauseous and sick, along with an annoying headache.

Today my abdomen feels a lot better, although I can still feel that my right leg is somewhat numb, with a very different feeling when I run a finger over my left or right leg. This should hopefully clear up over the next days, until the next ovulation event, in less than a month. Not a very cheerful prospect to look forward to, I feel.

Despite the endocrinologist telling me that she would call me on Friday to discuss the results so far after I emailed her on Wednesday, I received no phone call and thus I am still left in the dark on what exactly is going on. As I wrote to her, I feel quite certain that my natural estradiol level is high enough to be accounted as 'normal female level', presumably this 33 pmol level from the first test.

This would mean that I have at least the necessary ingredients to start a normal female cycle, depending on which organs and tissues I have in my abdomen. That I have such a cycle seems to be beyond doubt, after going through it for over two decades, with the symptoms gradually becoming more severe and painful. Now that I have experienced this cycle for two months without any artificial hormones including the pill, I am simply left wondering what is going on inside my abdomen.

In how far is what I am going through 'normal', as in the normal cycle involving ovarian tissue and the uterus? In how far is what I feel due to endometriosis, the result of ovarian, uterus and other tissue types getting scattered throughout my lower abdomen as a result of the chaotic development of my reproductive organs due to my intersex condition?

The symptom of my leg going numb would definitely seem to be more like an endometriosis symptom, while the painful hips and sides would be consistent with that of regular ovulation symptoms with intact female reproductive organs without endometriosis.

In short, I do not know. Just that even though I am now going through life without the assistance or influence of artificial hormones, I am now in near-constant pain and discomfort. I really do hope that medical help isn't long now.


Maya