By: Sharon Watkins Davis
The signs and symptoms of fibromyalgia include pain, fatigue and stiffness. Many people describe it like the muscle aches that sometimes accompany a bad flu. People who are diagnosed with fibromyalgia have had pain in several places for over three months and are tired a lot (fatigued), and don’t sleep well. Many people also have other problems, like frequent diarrhea or constipation, headaches, or poor memory. Most patients with fibromyalgia feel these symptoms starting over a period of long time, sometimes back to childhood. About one fourth of fibromyalgia patients remember a specific event that set off their symptoms, like a car accident, bad flu, or surgery.
Doctors don’t have any blood tests or scans they can do to make sure someone has fibromyalgia. There are two main things doctors look for in a clinical examination to diagnose fibromyalgia: 1) pain in the left side of the body plus the right side of the body, plus pain above the waist plus pain below the waist, plus neck pain or back pain or chest pain; 2) the patient feels pain when the doctor pushes his thumb into at least 11 of 18 specific places (tender points) on the body. Some men will have fibromyalgia with the first set of symptoms, but won’t have all the tender points.
The doctor may check for arthritis to make sure this is not causing the symptoms. Sometimes people with fibromyalgia also have other chronic problems, like lupus, or rheumatoid arthritis. The doctor should ask about where the patient feels pain and how bad it is. The doctor should also ask whether the patient has trouble falling asleep, wakes up several times a night, has trouble staying asleep, and is tired in the morning. Most doctors will also ask about whether the patient feels sad or is under stress.
