I had that same problem a few years ago. The 2 things that finally woke my doctor up was my pain journal and my husband.

In my pain journal I kept track of daily pain levels, activity levels, and activities that I was unable to do because of pain and other symptoms.

When I talk to my doctor about my pain, I also use the laundry/sex scale to measure my ability to do activity. For me since I live in a 3rd floow condo doing laundry means going downstairs and outside to the next building to the laundry room. So measuring my ability to do laundry is a measure of my physical activity capabilities.

Measuring my sex ability is about how the pain is affecting my mental state. If the pain is high I have no mental desire to engage in sex.

So, the sex/laundry scale communicates my mental and physical state to my doctor.

Having my husband there at my appointments helps the doctor to realize that my pain impacts him as well -- because when i can't do my laundry he has to do it for me, and my inability to have sex certainly has an impact on his life

Once my doctor saw my pain journal, listened to me talk about laundry and sex, and listened to my husbands input she stopped bothering with the anti-inflamatories and realized that I needed more pain relief to be able to get through a normal day.