The latest medical controversy on women’s health is surround fibromyalgia. There are drs that feel that the pain felt by fibromyalgia sufferers is all in their head. Note that the majority of fibromyalgia sufferers are women.
As diagnosed, fibromyalgia primarily affects middle-aged women and is characterized by chronic, widespread pain of unknown origin. Many of its sufferers are afflicted by other similarly nebulous conditions, like irritable bowel syndrome.
Because fibromyalgia patients typically do not respond to conventional painkillers like aspirin, drug makers are focusing on medicines like Lyrica that affect the brain and the perception of pain.
Advocacy groups and doctors who treat fibromyalgia estimate that 2 to 4 percent of adult Americans, as many as 10 million people, suffer from the disorder.
Those figures are sharply disputed by those doctors who do not consider fibromyalgia a medically recognizable illness and who say that diagnosing the condition actually worsens suffering by causing patients to obsess over aches that other people simply tolerate. Further, they warn that Lyrica’s side effects, which include severe weight gain, dizziness and edema, are very real, even if fibromyalgia is not.
Personally, I do not suffer from fibromyalgia, but my mom does. Now, let me tell you up front, I do not like the side effects of the drug currently being pushed by Pfizer. And there is the distinct possibility that drs are over diagnosing, or misdiagnosing fibromyalgia. However, who the hell do these deniers think they are to overwhelmingly treat women as nothing more than hysterical hypochondriacs?
Doesn’t this sound all too familiar? The women going through menopause that had various and numerous complaints, were considered nothing more than hysterical women by the medical community.
The diagnosis of fibromyalgia itself worsens the condition by encouraging people to think of themselves as sick and catalog their pain, said Dr. Nortin Hadler, a rheumatologist and professor of medicine at the University of North Carolina who has written extensively about fibromyalgia.
“These people live under a cloud,” he said. “And the more they seem to be around the medical establishment, the sicker they get.”
It’s about time the medical community dragged themselves into the 21st century and start realizing women are not stupid, they are quite capable of articulating the problems they are experiencing. It’s time that these drs start listening to their women patients instead of dismissing them.
Men with fibromyalgia face the same types of problems, I can assure you.
Mark, I didn’t mean to leave the impression that men with fibromyalgia haven’t gotten caught up in the hysterical patient syndrome some medical professionals chose to put forth. However, I pointed all this out because this attitude was “THE” attitude towards women’s health for a very long time, and in this case it seems to be a persistent attitude.
Not to tell you your business, but a recent study suggests that human growth hormone may help fibromyalgia sufferers. Maybe this is a better solution than some of the currently available “official” meds.
And there is the distinct possibility that drs are over diagnosing, or misdiagnosing fibromyalgia. I couldn’t agree more.
I am in the process of finding out if I have fibromyalgia. Currently, the Dr.’s are unsure, because I also have a high white blood count, which is suggestive of luekemia. I have pain every single day to the point of all I can do is cry. I can’t even stand to have the blanket to cover me. I hve a husband and a child, whom are both at their wits end because of my pain. I don’t know if I have fibromyalgia.But I can tell you I have suffered for years with pain from something and also from the painful test I have had to endure, all because of the Dr.s who have no clue as to the problem. And because most automaticly think that you are either a “hysterical woman” or a “drug seeker” , I can say I am neither. But the one thing I am…is undiagnosed, and still in pain.
Issue isn’t whether fibro exists, but whether the traditional medical establishment has the expertise and tools to treat and heal the condition. They just don’t know what they don’t know! And they blame victims of the disease for their ignorance. This is very troubling.
I was diagnosed with the disease after 2 years of chronic pain, tests, and no relief. I was 21 years old and am 28 now. I finally got on the road to wellness by exploring alternative therapies, but it’s a daily battle during flare ups, which can last for months.
I’d like to find a single person who after experiencing unexplainable pain for days, weeks, months on end, does not become at least a little bit “hysterical.” Calling the disease “unreal” just adds to the emotional distress.
Rachael said: I’d like to find a single person who after experiencing unexplainable pain for days, weeks, months on end, does not become at least a little bit “hysterical.”
AMEN! AMEN & AMEN!
I take Lyrica for now. I, like Rachael am exploring alternative therapies.
Pacing yourself during the day, limiting stress (bwahaha) and regular sleep habits seem to be the major keys to preventing a flare – BUT there is no guarantee that you won’t have a flare doing all of these things and more.
So frustrating.
Thanks for the article. More people need to read things like this.