How many people with fibromyalgia have lipomas, and if so, how are you dealing with these (do they actually cause you pain, have you had them taken care of in any way??).
Hi there - good questions…
Generally, they are “more common” in fibro than without, but I haven’t found numbers.
Important thing to watch: Lipomas with pain may seem to be fibromyalgia, but can actually be Dercum’s disease: Dercum’s Disease – A Mimic of Fibromyalgia | Dercum's Disease Research
And personally: I have one, which my wife saw, not pre-fibro. It doesn’t cause me pain, and I “had it taken care” of by asking my dermatologist and she said it’s OK to leave it as long as it doesn’t change: so that’s taken care of . Got enough going on, don’t need any extra scars that’ll cause more problems. (As far as cutting goes I have a probably harmless tumour in my spine that needs checking once a year…)
But @Freedom has “just” had a lipoma surgically removed.
Hi, JayCS is correct. I had a lipoma removed 2 weeks ago. Unless they cause pain, I believe most doctors don’t remove them. Mine was by my left hip. It doubled in size over 12 months. Because it hurt when I layed on my left side, I had it removed. I didn’t know there was a correlation between Fibro and lipomas. Do you have more than one lipoma? Are they painful?
Hi Country Girl!
I have a lot of lipomas, a condition I inherited from my Dad. I had a surgeon remove 10 of them using local anesthetic at one time - a couple of years ago. They were in spots on my sides, back, legs and arms that caused pain while trying to sleep. I had a good experience, and they healed well. If others begin to hurt in the future, I won’t hesitate to have them removed. Best wishes.
Yes, I had one removed on my arm, because when I typed at work it pressed on a nerve. I have others that are being observed, that every once in awhile they bother me but until they continue to hurt will remain.
Hi there-lipomas can definitely be rough. I had about 10 on my ribs and had 6 surgically removed-full surgery because they weren’t just right under the skin. It was incredibly painful and a very tough recovery. I decided not to have anymore removed because they aren’t causing me pain, nor are they visible. Mine were wrapped around my floating ribs plus they don’t show up in imaging, so my surgery wasn’t done with scopes all easy peasy. I would say unless they’re hurting you, it is probably not worth removing them.
I have one that feels like a knot in my arm (btwn my wrist and elbow) - It doesn’t cause pain, but is just annoying. It has been there for years.
I have a lipoma on my mid to upper left back. It is just kind of there, wont be removed unless it causes problems. It hurts if pressure happens but otherwise not, like when they press on it at the doctor it hurts, or if my bf accidentally presses it hugging me or something but otherwise it’s just there doing nothing.
I find it incredibly interesting to learn that there are several of you here who have fibro and multiple lipomas…I’ve had four removed myself, and I have probably 20-30 in here remaining. Some are painful to touch at times - the ones on my ribs are no fun - while others are fine and out of the way.
Makes me wonder if there’s anything to that correlation or if it’s just coincidental, small sample size, etc.
Hi there Josh, and welcome!
Wow, 20-30!
Yep, wonder we may, it does crop up quite often, but I did try to research it and couldn’t find any proven connection cause-wise nor study proof if it is really a connection above the coincidental…
For me the relevance is if a symptom helps me to understand my body better, like bladder pain or periodic eye problems being muscular and influencable with the supp GABA.
Looking at the background of lipomas I can’t see any clues for that sort of thing.
And a certain correlation (or even causality) for me would seem to be more conspicuous if the lipomas and the fibro really came up at a similar time. Did yours or have you always had them?
I had oversensitivities all my life, which didn’t seem to be explainable from fibro and when the jabs triggered MCAS I then knew that was a second condition - although they might somehow be connected, at least some MCAS specialists seem to think so…
If they are painful to touch at times, I’m wondering if they are praps more painful if you are in a fibro flare or at least have overdone it and aching from that? (Like my bladder pain.)
I can imagine the ones on your ribs could mask rib muscle problems like costochondritis and vice versa if you don’t like exercising enough because of them, that they might tend to increase local pain problems like that?