Fibromyalgia Symptoms

Fibromyalgia can be very hard to diagnose as the early symptoms of Fibromyalgia can often be mistaken as other conditions and there are no definitive tests that can diagnose fibromyalgia. It is a condition diagnosed by elimination. This can make the whole diagnosis process extremely frustrating.

If you suspect you might have Fibromyalgia you should document everything you feel and everything that happens to your body. This information will be helpful to your doctor and could lead to a quicker diagnosis. However, because many of the early symptoms of Fibromyalgia can be mistaken for something else, it can be hard to figure out what is going on.

Pain
Pain is the most common symptom and is most noticeably felt in the neck and shoulders first, but a person with this pain might simply think they have strained or pulled something. The pain tends to be more pronounced in the joints, but radiates into the muscles. These areas will feel very tender when pressed. In some cases, the pain will shoot down the back and the arms.

Stiffness
Can appear in any of the joints of the body. It feels a little like arthritis, but when you first experience it, you might think you are far too young to be having problems such as these. You may notice the stiffness in the morning when you wake up or when the weather changes. This might also be accompanied by a burning sensation near the joints.

Headaches
People with Fibromyalgia often notice they get more and more headaches that vary in degree and intensity. These headaches might be the tension variety that radiate into the neck and shoulders, or the more debilitating migraine variety.

Fatigue
This is also an early symptom that a person might easily brush off as something else. We all feel tired now and again, but someone with Fibromyalgia will notice they feel tired every single day no matter how much sleep they are getting. This fatigue may also be accompanied by 'brain fog' (mental confusion), or feelings of depression that happen more frequently.

Disturbed Sleep Patterns
Sufferers of fibromyalgia will generally notice early on that they are having problems with regular sleep patterns. Some sufferers experience insomnia, and others wake frequently throughout the night. A combination of the two is not uncommon. Sufferers can also have other sleep disorders like sleep apnea or Restless Leg Syndrome.

There are also a variety of other symptoms that may or may not be apparent in the early stages of this condition. Some of the other early symptoms of Fibromyalgia are not common for everyone, but many will have at least some of them. These can include:

- frequent urination
- painful menstrual cycles
- problems with bowel movements (irritable bowel syndrome)
- rashes and other skin problems
- allergies

If you have any of the more common early symptoms of Fibromyalgia, along with some of the secondary ones, you should seek medical advice to determine the cause of your symptoms.