How To Diagnose Fibromyalgia?

Posted on Wed, 17 Aug 2016

Medically reviewed by Ask A Doctor - 24x7 Medical Review Team

Wed, 17 Aug 2016 Answered on

Tue, 6 Sep 2016 Last reviewed on

Question : My doctor has diagnosed me with fibromyalgia last year, could she be incorrect?
Symptoms
1. Muscle pain in arms and shoulders including tingling in right hand.
2. Excessive tiredness / fatigue post excerise and at the end of the day despite sleeping well
3. Upon waking feeling as I have a hangover
Note: I do not have pain in the 12 points as per fibro profile
I also suffer from an underlying auto immune disorder and epilepsy

Answered by Dr. Dr. Naveen Kumar Sharma (1 hour later)

Brief Answer:
Fibromyalgia is a diagnosis of exclusion

Detailed Answer:
Hello,
I have studied your case. Fibromyalgia is a diagnosis of exclusion.It means that when all other reports are normal then we can say that it is fibromyalgia. To confirm this I would suggest you following.
1.Taking Epileptic medication can cause bone weakness. So get your Vitamin D 3 level.
2.Due to Auto immune disease you may have taken steroids.Steroids can decease immunity. For this you need to get your serum B12 estimation.
3.Also make sure that your blood sugar and thyroid profile is normal.
If after checking all these investigations your reports are normal then you are most probably having Fibromyalgia.
I hope this answer will be useful for you.Let me know if there is any other followup questions.
thanks

Above answer was peer-reviewed by : Dr. Veerisetty Shyamkumar