There was a time not long ago when those with fibromyalgia had little hope of escaping the pain, fatigue, and anxiety caused by their syndrome. The prognosis was grim, thanks to the lack of treatment options.
In recent years, medicine has made amazing strides of progress, including finding ways to treat and manage fibromyalgia. While there is no cure, the quality of life of patients with fibromyalgia is much better than before.
But before you can take steps to manage the syndrome, you have to know for certain that it is really fibromyalgia. The syndrome shares many of its symptoms with other disorders and diseases, so even doctors have a hard time diagnosing the problem. It’s important for you to understand how is fibromyalgia diagnosed so you can work with your doctor to manage the condition.
Why is it Difficult to Diagnose Fibromyalgia
Before you learn how is fibromyalgia diagnosed, you need to understand WHY it’s often hard for doctors to diagnose the syndrome.
Fibromyalgia has many symptoms, including:
- Widespread pain
- Fatigue/exhaustion
- Depression
- Anxiety
- A lower tolerance to pain
- Tender spots around your body
These all seem like fairly straightforward symptoms, so diagnosing fibromyalgia should be fairly simple, right? Sadly, no!
If you look at the symptoms, you’ll see that there are a number of disorders with the same symptoms in common. Depression and anxiety are symptomatic of a number of physical and emotional disorders, and fatigue can be caused by dozens of other health problems.
If the pain of your fibromyalgia is concentrated in your joints or muscles, it may be hard to distinguish it from problems like arthritis. The lower tolerance to pain and the tender spots around your body can be caused by a number of disorders and syndromes aside from fibromyalgia.
Patients with fibromyalgia have been diagnosed with disorders like:
- Major Depressive Disorder
- Arthritis
- Lupus
- Chronic Myofascial Pain
- Chronic Fatigue Syndrome
- and the list goes on…
Thankfully, with the information we’ve got here, you should be able to learn how to diagnose fibromyalgia properly!
How is Fibromyalgia Diagnosed?
One of the main problems is that fibromyalgia is not an easy syndrome to diagnose. There are very few lab tests that can detect the problem properly.
Here are the main methods of diagnosing fibromyalgia:
Blood Test
The FM/a blood test is one of the few lab tests that will help your doctors to diagnose your fibromyalgia. This test searches for special blood cells that your immune system produces if you are suffering from fibromyalgia. This is a very useful test if you are trying to tell the syndrome apart from arthritis, lupus, or chronic fatigue syndrome.
Physical Exam
Most doctors will do a physical exam, testing your tender spots to determine where there is pain and what could possibly be causing it. You will need to discuss your symptoms and pains with your doctor, and you’ll need to be as honest as possible. The more information you can provide on how you are feeling, the easier it will be for the doctor to diagnose the problem.
Blood Count
A Complete Blood Count (CBC) test will measure the platelets, white blood cells, red blood cells, and hemoglobin levels in your body. This blood test is able to discover a wide range of disorders, helping your doctor to figure out if your fatigue is being caused by anemia or another problem–such as fibromyalgia.
Organ Tests
Your doctor may ask you to undergo liver and kidney tests. These tests will examine your blood chemistry, helping the doctor to know where your cholesterol levels are at, how much fat is in your blood, how high or low your calcium levels are, etc. Thyroid tests will help your doctor to determine how active/inactive the thyroid gland is.
Blood Cell Sedimentation Test
When a doctor is looking for fibromyalgia specifically, he will usually test the blood cell sedimentation rate. This test gives the doctor an idea of how much inflammation is present in the body. It’s not usually used to diagnose rheumatoid arthritis or lupus, but it’s usually used with fibromyalgia and osteoarthritis.
Other Tests
Your doctor may ask you to undergo an ANA test, which will determine anti-nuclear antibodies. ANA should not be present in the body, and they’re only present when you are suffering from lupus. He may also test your rheumatoid factor and anti-CCP antibodies, both of which are tests searching for rheumatoid arthritis.
X-Ray
If your doctor asks you to get an X-ray, it’s usually to rule out arthritis. Those suffering from fibromyalgia will not notice anything different in their joints or around their body. Differences will only be noticeable if you are suffering from arthritis (swelling in your joints).
These tests are designed to diagnose fibromyalgia, and they will do so by ruling out the other similar disorders and conditions. Once rheumatoid arthritis, lupus, chronic fatigue syndrome, osteoarthritis, and the other similar conditions are ruled out, all that’s left is fibromyalgia!
Once these tests have been concluded, the doctor will use the following criteria for diagnosing fibromyalgia:
- Is the pain widespread in all four quadrants of your body? If so, the diagnosis will be positive.
- Has the pain been present for more than three months? Fibromyalgia is a chronic condition, and thus the pain has to persist for more than three months for it to be diagnosed.
- Have all other disorders and syndromes been ruled out? If so, it has to be fibromyalgia.
Understanding the Fibromyalgia Tender Points
One of the best methods doctors will use to diagnose fibromyalgia is to examine the tender points.
Fibromyalgia tender points are points of pain, usually localized AROUND the joints. Your pain will not usually be in the joints themselves, but in the surrounding areas. This is one of the ways to rule out arthritis, as arthritis pains are located in the joints.
To test these tender points, your doctor will have to prod them with a finger. You will experience pain, but it’s a good thing! These tender points will help your doctor to know that it’s fibromyalgia, rather than some other disorder or condition.
The pain will not usually be deep, but they’re almost always located immediately beneath the skin. They’re often around the shoulder or elbow, but they can also be found on the buttocks, neck, chest, back, hips, and knees.
The tender points will usually be no larger than a penny, but they will be much more sensitive than other parts of the body. The pressure on these spots will cause you to jerk back, wince, or flinch. This is a good thing: it’s a clearer indication of what’s going on inside your body.
These tender points will be useful in helping your body to diagnose your problem. He will still have to run other tests (such as those listed above), and he’ll check your symptoms to rule out other conditions. They will also check “control” points around your body. For example, they may test underneath your neck, where your lymph nodes are. This will help them to rule out other problems that can cause localized pain and tenderness.
