Fibromyalgia Diagnosis Often Missed in Men

Avatar for cmkarla
Registered: 01-03-2001
Fibromyalgia Diagnosis Often Missed in Men
Fri, 12-28-2012 - 8:28am

According to a new study in this article from Health Day News, Fibromyalgia may be missed in men. "Many people with fibromyalgia, especially men, go undiagnosed, according to a new study.Fibromyalgia is a disorder that causes symptoms such as pain and tenderness, fatigue, and sleep and memory problems. Many of these symptoms can overlap or be mistaken for other conditions, the Mayo Clinic researchers noted....The researchers also found that 20 times more men had fibromyalgia symptoms than had been diagnosed, while three times more women had fibromyalgia symptoms than had been diagnosed." MORE

Your thoughts?


iVillage Member
Registered: 06-06-2000
Tue, 01-01-2013 - 11:50am

I think part of the issue is that doctors and the general public still lump FM into the category of "hysterical female diseases," and therefore don't even consider it when faced with a male patient with all the symptoms of FM.  It's depressing that with all of the advances in medicine, we are still faced with such pervasive prejudice when it comes to illnesses.  The only diseases that are specific to the sexes are those that affect parts the other sex doesn't have, like a uterus, but many view FM as a problem only women have, much the same way people generally thought of heart attacks as a male issue.