Period or pelvic pain that won't quit? Let's get you ready to be taken seriously.

For women and people assigned female at birth living with pelvic pain — or anyone helping someone they care about prepare for the appointment.

Lots of people are told for years that bad period pain is just something to put up with. In Australia, the average time from first symptoms to an endometriosis diagnosis is around 6.5 years — and that delay is a recognised, system-wide problem, not a personal failing. This page takes your own words and lays them out the way a doctor reads them, then hands you the treatment-options questions to ask once the conversation opens — so you can walk in able to describe what's going on, clearly.

It isn't a "do you have endometriosis" quiz, and it can't tell you if you have it — only a doctor can work that out. It never diagnoses you, never names a specific medicine or surgery, and never tells you that any doctor has failed you. The aim is simple: help you describe your pain clearly and ask good questions. A good GP will be glad you came in prepared.

The four questions you'll get to take in (no internet connection needed):
1. For my situation, what are the treatment options — and what is each one trying to do?
2. What are the common downsides of each option, and how likely are they?
3. What's the full menu — pain management, hormonal options, a referral, surgery, allied-health support?
4. What's the plan to actually look into this — examination, a scan, a referral — and can we start managing the pain now?

If you need help now: in an emergency call 000 · Lifeline 13 11 14 (24/7, text 0477 13 11 14) · 1800RESPECT 1800 737 732 · Poisons Information Centre 13 11 26 · 13YARN (First Nations) 13 92 76 · Kids Helpline 1800 55 1800 · healthdirect nurse triage 1800 022 222 (not VIC/QLD) · Nurse-on-Call VIC 1300 60 60 24.

Tell me what's been going on — in your own words

This is the one thing I need. Type how you'd say it to a friend. Nothing you type leaves your browser — and it's never included in the emailed summary.

0/1500

Dr HB Lo

Integrative GP · Endometriosis — prepare to push for answers (one-pager)

Your story

The thing no one tells you

Your story, in the order a doctor reads it

Main concern
Timeline
Pattern
Worse / better
What it stops you doing
What you want from the visit

The treatment-options questions to ask — then decide

B — Benefits: what each option is actually for
R — Risks: the common downsides, and how common
A — Alternatives: the full menu
N — Investigation + timing: getting it moving

The Australian guideline supports starting symptom-based management without waiting for a laparoscopy — surgery is no longer needed just to begin treatment (RANZCOG; RACGP / AJGP). So the goal is getting the investigation and pain plan moving, not waiting and seeing.

The honest part

The honest part — this tool can't tell you if you have endometriosis.

Three honest things to hold:

Only a doctor can diagnose this. Lots of conditions cause pelvic pain, and many of your symptoms could be something else entirely. This page helps you describe what's going on and what to ask — it is not a diagnosis, and a normal scan doesn't rule endometriosis out (RANZCOG).
There's no single cure, and treatment is about managing it. Endometriosis is usually a long-term condition. Treatments aim to control pain and symptoms and protect fertility where that matters — and symptoms can come back, even after surgery (Jean Hailes; RANZCOG). Knowing that up front makes you a better partner in the plan, not a worse one.
These questions aren't a challenge to your doctor. They're what you'd ask if you had all day. Bringing them just gets you the real conversation faster — most GPs are glad when a patient walks in this clear.

Take it with you

Email yourself the one-page summary to bring to your GP.

Your story in the order a doctor reads it, your treatment questions with room to write the answers, and the facts that back you up — ready to put on the desk.

Your email

What you typed stays on your device. If you email the summary, only the finished one-pager is sent.

Where to next?

Walking into the appointment and want to make sure nothing gets forgotten in the moment? The consult-prep tool structures any symptom story and flags the gaps. Facing a specific treatment decision later — surgery, hormones, a referral? The BRAN question generator builds the four questions for whatever's on the table. And once you've seen the GP, the post-consult debrief turns a foggy appointment back into a plan.

Make sure nothing gets forgotten in the moment (consult-prep) →
Facing a specific treatment decision? Get its four questions (BRAN) →
Just seen the GP? Turn the foggy appointment into a plan (post-consult debrief) →
Heavy periods too? The heavy-bleeding decision aid →
The women's-health decisions cluster: what endometriosis is, and how it's diagnosed →