Hi Spacegurl!
We’ve got massive information on this, quite a few threads with details since 2013, if you do a search, e.g.:
- Finally, a blood test available for fibromyalgia! 2013
- FM/a test bogus? - Interesting Article from "MedPage Today" and STAT news: Selling Certainty 2021
- EpicGenetics new blood test for Fibromyalgia 2018
Bottom line: There is no test for fibromyalgia really.
Docs used to use 18 “tender points” to diagnose it, but this has been ditched as unreliable.
The so-called FM/a test was thought up by Bruce Gillis (company ‘EpicGenetics’) and is not approved by other researchers in any way. It proves only that cytokines and chemokines are different in that person, which would relate it to a whole number of immune problems. These substances are biomarkers of fibro, no proof of the cause or of fibro itself. A few studies, like last year by Goebel / Anderson, have been putting a slight case for fibro to be related to the immune system, praps autoimmune. But the prevailing hypothesis with many more studies is still that fibro is a central sensitisation problem. The problem is with many of these researchers is they are narrow-mindedly saying only they are right and they are proving something about the cause of fibro, which if you look at the studies closely is only very slight.
Gillis embarrassingly has a long history of dubious ethics, if you look at all 3 threads above. The “FM/a test” costs over 1000$ and is paid for by insurances to stop people looking for help further.
According to all modern criteria for fibro, incl. ACR 2016, it is necessary to exclude other conditions to explain our symptoms and this is exactly what the “FM/a test” does NOT do, so it’s a waste of time and money. It’s extremely frustrating for those who test negative but have all the symptoms and actually the diagnosis.