I had a bout of endometriosis towards the end of perimenopause, like sometime in the last 5 or so years of my periods. Omg it felt like I had a 6 foot long 2x2 piece of wood stuck thru my left ovary - try walking around with that! The lady doctor said it could be a microscopic piece of tissue impinging on a nerve ending. I was like, really?? And it would hurt like that?? She said yep, just a DOT. I used a heating pad when I wasn't working, and massaged the area with my hands and fingers as much as I could stand it, but still fairly gently. I mean, you don't want to break anything in there, it's all squishy stuff! But you totally have my sympathies. And don't wait until the pain is real bad before you take a pain reliever - if you take a medication that stops inflammation, that will stop the pain from being so bad. Like instead of letting it reach 100 and trying to lower it to 60, you take meds at 40 and then it only goes up to 60.