Fibromyalgia is a disease that can deeply affect the lives of people. Sadly, causes aren’t clear yet for scientists and doctors, and there is no test so far that can help diagnose this condition. Diagnosis itself is a merely clinical one, asking the patients questions and then deciding what they have is actually fibromyalgia.
The name of the disease means “pain in fibers and muscles”, and the main symptom is a widespread pain that heavily affects the quality of life of people suffering from it. This is what fibromyalgia is mostly known for. What most people don’t know, however, is that there is a wide array of symptoms fibromyalgia can cause, and patients don’t usually associate them with the disease. Since there is no clear way to diagnose fibromyalgia through tests or image exploration, it is fundamental that you know what other symptoms could be indicating that what you have is actually fibromyalgia.
1. Body aching
Altough it is of common knowledge that fibromyalgia makes your body hurt, people don’t really know how much this pain can actually extend, and the variety of painful sensations patients with fibromyalgia can experiment. The pain affects both superficial and deep tissue; mostly, muscles, ligaments, tendons and joints. Connective and muscular tissue is most affected by this condition. The pain is sometimes constant but in other cases can come and go, or become more or less intense during the day.
The feeling of aching can be sharp or dull, light or intense, throbbing or aching. Also, another quite unknown manifestation of fibromyalgia that often flies under the radar is particularly painful or intense menstrual cramps, either before or during the days of bleeding. Another aspect of pain caused by fibromyalgia that people often overlook is an increased sensitivity to pain, even when muscles and ligaments themselves aren’t aching.
