45-50
I was diagnosed during the summer of 2001. I also was told I have had it for many years. I married in 1975 at the age of 20 and that's when I started with the symptoms. I became very sick the week of my wedding and have never really been the same since then. In 1995 I lost my job because my depression was so bad and I haven't been able to work since. Over the years of trying to get my depression under control I uncover a lot of very traumatic events and things came to a head early in 2001. First found out I have sleep apnea and a few months later I woke up hurting every where. There wasn't any part of me that didn't hurt. This was when I was told I have Fibromyalgia. So even though I found out the summer of 2001 at the age of 46 I believe I've really had it since 1975 when I was 20.
Too many people say they have it with no diagnosis and I was 17-18 then diagnosed at 19.
Hi, I was 34 when I first started having pain and am 45 now. Was only diagnosed with fibro a few weeks ago when I told my dr I was so sick of being in pain, and so tired all the time. I've had tests, x-rays, ct scans, etc, for different areas of pain with nothing showing up, but no-one ever put everything together. Until now. At least now I know that my pain is not imagined. :)
Maybe this or even arthritis are the growing pains my Rheumatologist just started asking about on his questionnaires. My Mom was with me, she said we both had them as kids!
Renie, that is a BUMMER!
I am also a Moderator on the BF Lupus site, just like this site, it is full of young people in their teens, twenties, thirties. There are many here who have had Juvenille Arthritis. Fibrokitty is one, she is also a Physician's Assistant in Internal Medicine, I'm sure she would be glad to talk to you about this! There are no age boundaries for disease!
By the way, both are hereditary diseases. That is why the Rheumatologists want to know your family history, never hurts to know it!
It seems that stress, illness, surgery, trauma can set these into motion. My Dr keeps telling me I've had this for a LONG TIME!! I have to wonder how young I was, but if it's hereditary, it was in the DNA at conception, that last car accident I just could not get over though!
I was officially diagnosed in 2000 just before my 28th birthday. But I was diagnosed with what I know to be the first symptoms at 18.
I tried acupuncture and got nothing but more pain from it. Massage is my friend as well Sandi.
I was 35, however the more I learn and look through my past, there were signs in childhood. While I had been supremely healthy: Never get cold/flu, no chicken pox, scarlet fever etc...I never had any illness at all. But, I did have sleeping problems that grew worse once I hit adolesence. Small signs/symptoms were present but not the strong physical ones such as our Chronic Pain, IBS etc...Official diagnosis: I was 38. Many of us can look back and see small signposts along the way that indicated we had the disorder in our brain/body(physical brain). At what age it appears full force depends on many factors to large to discuss here and now: general overall health, activity, diet, etc.. It may seem to be the disorder of the times but that is because more people are talking about it, people are being properly diagnosed at a faster rate (before it was psychological and not physical), and according to 6 degrees of separation it is inevitable that at least 1 in 10 people we speak with will know of someone with FMS. The truth is, unless you are somehow in the fibro loop, chances are you never heard about FMS. There is still a great lack of knowledge/awareness in the general public. More people need to be educated about our fight. That's okay, we are pioneers. ~ Julianna
another thing, when i was diagnosed in the 80"s, it was hush hush. but now that it is out in the open, the world tends to treat me like i'm just another person with another condition...i know it is good to get the word out there, but sometimes that can be worse for us..you know, you say i have fibro, they know what it is, but i get comments like, "oh, everyone has that now"..never was told that in the 80's...that does make it hard to get help from people sometimes.
25-34 here
My fibro started when I was 15-25. Although, I was officially diagnosed when I was 34-40.
I haven't noticed anymore people saying they have fibro.
Kim
I think I was in my 30's, but I was not diagnosed until age 40.
This is a great post! Very interesting!! I was not actually diagnosed until age 45 (I am 63 now). My job involved using a keyboard all day, and I had developed extreme pain in my wrists and thought I was getting carpal tunnel, but the rheumatologist instead tested me for FMS and found 11 tender points. The odd thing is that I can remember as a young child feeling those same tender points. For example, whenever someone grabbed me by my upper arm I would scream and they could not believe that it hurt me. I thought everyone had those tender points in various parts of their body. I was shocked to find out at age 45 that that was not normal!
I was rear-ended by a car going 35 mph when I was about 40. During the next few years I would develop various types of pain (hip, shoulder, neck) and would need to go to physical therapy for several weeks to get back to a somewhat normal state. If I hadn't been sent to the rheumatologist to be tested for carpal tunnel I Probably would never have been diagnosed!
i agree with you....plus why all of sudden do so many people have it? Also many of the syptoms can be so many other diseases.
Like depression...i do not have depression or sleep apnea...i even wonder if i was diagnosed correctly since i saw a type of arthritis that actually fit all my symptoms more closely. Even reading these answers from people make me wonder. like the chronic fatigue of the 80's...all of sudden many people had it..now everyone i knew who said they had it..either do not or say it is fibro now lol!
i am glad i am not a doctor in this world!
I sure have....even in 2000 there were no support groups on internet now they are everywhere. Plus all the generalization about symptoms makes it easy to fit many people. Yes doctor is suppose to check the 10/11 points but if someone has read about those ... then who knows if it is them thinking they hurt more there or actually hurting in those spots.
Kind of like reading side effects of drugs...i never do because i do not want the idea of the in my head. If i feel weird after taking a new drug than i look...or after few months of taking them...but never right before.
I still have doctors telling me there is no such thing of it too! Amazing isn't it. Same as with my SLE...how fibro was explain to me originally was that it tends to pop out with people with either RA or SLE or both like me...after a traumatic experience...which i had. I had never ever heard of it before doctor said i had it. Now i believe it is really another kind of arthritis really..that has very similar symptoms.
same thing happen with SLE, lupus, no one heard of it. was extremely rare and now everyone either has it or fibro it seems...or both like me. So is it easier to diagnose or is it environmental?
15 to 25 for me
Rachel, it really astounds me as to how many people on here "got it" in this age range. Does the onset of puberty and surge in female hormones impact the onset of fibro? I have to admit, until hearing from all of you, I never once considered fibro to be a very young person's illness and I have to say, I was completely wrong! Very unfortunately.
I just want you and the others who got it at such young ages to know how badly I feel for you having to deal with fibro in what should have been your best physical years. More so because doctors refused to even acknowledge it until fairly recently (ahem, just more female "hysteria" or "depression.") I hope this illness is stamped out soon, not only for us but for generations of upcoming girls who DO NOT DESERVE to come down with fibro, especially in the prime of their lives. And let me be clear, you men out there with it don't deserve it either and the same sentiment holds true for you.
I was just too tired to expand on my earlier posting. I was finally diagnosed in Nov. of 1987 when at age 44, but I was in pain much earlier but the doctors could not figure out why so I just continued to push on through the pain as I was a single parent raising two children and teaching full time plus playing the organ every Sunday for Church and directing both an adult choir and a children's choir..........and taking my daughter to music lessons and concerts and taking my son to his hockey games and competitive swimming plus taking one university course at a time. Yes, this is true even if it sounds like a lot. It was a lot. My friends knew I was always in pain so they convinced me to change local doctors so I did. The first appointment I had with him he diagnosed me with fibrocitis which is what fibromyalgia was known as then. Since then the more I read and learn about fibromyalgia and look back over my life the more I can see that it started when I was young........with stress. Exams have always caused me stress my entire life. When I was 8 years old I started music lessons so I had an exam in June in Piano and another exam in Theory in May. The morning of every piano exam and theory exam I would wake up with diarrhea and pains in my chest(the kind that was worse when you breathed in). I always prayed that I wouldn't have to leave my exam to fly to the bathroom and thus fail my exam because the examiner had a schedule to keep. I never did have any more diarrhea but the stress...........plus the stress of the exam itself. But I continued studying my music all through my school years and after. I attribute my fibromyalgia to increasing stress all through my life starting actually from age 8. I learned to live with stress all through my life and I am so very thankful that God guided me through all the stresses of my life and I was able to teach for 30 years. Finally at age 55 my body hit the wall figuratively and I took early retirement. In retirement I tutored and taught piano and voice for 12 years and then my body said No more. I played the organ regularly since I was 15 yr old so I was very busy all my life........happily busy teaching and doing music and raising my children. I have always loved teaching. Music waters my soul. But I have happily closed some doors now after a lifetime of fulfillment.
Rachel, I think you are the poster child for pushing on through fibro and achieving so very much. Your schedule back in the day was extraordinary even for non-fibro people. I cannot believe that you accomplished all of that. You must have loved all that you did very, very much in order to get through it all. Or else you have a will of iron. Or both, lol.
I admire that you did what you wanted to do for so long, despite the fibro. Plus you had two children, which as any parent knows is no picnic. Especially for a single parent.
It's sad that yet again, here's a case of fibro coming on at a very young age. And there is our old friend, stress, exacerbating the situation again. Stress seems to be so much of a common denominator for so many people here. Why why why? Did stressful or abusive situations damage or alter the area of the brain that handles stress? Really makes me wonder.
How in the world did you get by? Did you have any pain meds? Or did you do this on sheer will? If the latter, then I think you deserve a medal for soldiering on through this war for so long.
Thanks for sharing, Rachel. It was insightful.