People with Fibromyalgia often have sensitivities or intolerances to many things, from foods to chemicals. An exposure to something they are intolerant of can cause a flare in all the Fibromyalgia symptoms. If someone with Fibromyalgia says, for example, that they can’t stay in the same room as a smoker, or someone with strong aftershave on, then they mean it and could be quite ill if they continue to do so. People with Fibromyalgia can be hypersensitive to almost anything, including sound and light.

Irritable Bowel Syndrome (IBS) is common amongst people with Fibromyalgia and this is often worsened by food intolerance's sufferers have. Gastro-Oesophageal Reflux Disease and Irritable Bladder are also possible Fibromyalgia symptoms.

Autonomic Dysfunction (sometimes called Dysautonomia) of some kind is common with Fibromyalgia: this simply means that the Autonomic Nervous System isn’t working properly. The ANS keeps various factors in your body at normal levels, including heart rate, perspiration and respiration. Autonomic Dysfunction with Fibromyalgia can include not being able to properly regulate your temperature - people with Fibromyalgia are often either too hot or too cold - and fainting
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Headaches and migraines are also common amongst people with Fibromyalgia.

Other symptoms include Restless Leg Syndrome or Periodic Limb Movement Disorder, Tremors, loss of Coordination, Tinnitus, Mitral Valve prolapse, slow recovery from illness, Sleep Starts, Anxiety and problems with the Menstrual cycle in women.

How Is Fibromyalgia Diagnosed?

There is currently no definitive test for Fibromyalgia and there is no way of your doctor “seeing” the condition in you as part of regular clinical practice, although complicated brain scans have shown positive readings in research studies into Fibromyalgia.

In making the diagnosis, the physician will first rule out other conditions that can be tested for and that might be causing some of your symptoms. Such conditions include: Rheumatoid Arthritis, Osteoarthritis, Lupus, Thyroid Conditions and Multiple Sclerosis (MS). This is done primarily through blood tests and physical exams, although further testing may be done, such as x-rays and even MRIs if checking for conditions like Rheumatoid Arthritis or MS. It is worth noting that the presence of another condition does not rule out the possibility of Fibromyalgia as a diagnosis. Fibromyalgia is not a diagnosis of exclusion and should be diagnosed by its own characteristic features, but it is important for the diagnosing physician to know whether your symptoms could be explained by another condition - for example, joint pain could be explained by Rheumatoid Arthritis - and so whether some of those characteristic features are already accounted for.

When all possible other causes of the symptoms have been ruled out (or taken into account), then the physician will first look at your symptoms and symptom history to see if they tie in with a Fibromyalgia diagnosis.

The American College of Rheumatology (ACR) published a set of criteria for the diagnosis of Fibromyalgia in 1990. For this, you need to have had pain in all four quadrants of the body (i.e. on both the left and right sides and above and below the waist) for at least 3 months. For the ACR criteria, you also need to have 11 out of 18 specifically chosen tender points. The tender points are spots on the body where everyone is more sensitive and so where it is easiest to test for the hypersensitivity to pain that characterizes Fibromyalgia.

There can be many more points on the body in which you are sensitive, but these were chosen as the standard 18 to test. In order for the test to have most meaning, the physician needs to follow some guidelines for doing the test.