Diagnosing Fibromyalgia

Many individuals receive mistaken diagnoses when it comes to fibromyalgia. There are many illnesses and conditions that have similar symptoms making it easy to make diagnosing mistakes. There are many procedures that can help doctors to arrive at the correct diagnosis. There are many medical professionals that can assist your doctor in making the diagnosis and in helping care for your symptoms.

Professionals that can help your doctor to make the correct diagnosis include a gynecologist, rheumatologist, neurologist, pain specialist, osteopath, naturopath, and dentist.


There are many tests used to make the diagnosis of fibromyalgia including hair analysis. Hair analysis is a fairly new test that is accurate in diagnosing fibromyalgia. A blood pressure test is also helpful in diagnosing fibromyalgia. A rheumatologist is specially trained in conditions that are affected by muscle or joint and can advise your doctor when making the diagnosis.

A neurologist is a medical doctor that specializes in treating nervous system disorders including the central nervous system (brain and spinal cord) and the peripheral nervous system (nerves, nerve roots, and muscles). The neurologist can perform some specialized tests to help your doctor arrive at an accurate diagnosis.

A neurologist treats headaches, head injury, strokes, tumors, Parkinson’s disease, epilepsy, and multiple sclerosis and other muscle diseases. Because fibromyalgia may be a pain processing disorder within the brain it falls within the realm of conditions that a neurologists is able to treat.

Chronic Pain

Pain specialists are medical doctors that decide to specialty in the diagnosis, management and treatment of acute and chronic pain. They offer specialized treatment services. Pain specialist may perform tests such as a MRI, skin temperature monitoring, and x-rays of muscles and nerves in order to help your doctor with the diagnosis and treatment.

Osteopaths is a doctor of medicine known as a D.O. Osteopaths can diagnosis and treat a wide range of medical conditions including fibromyalgia believing that the body can heal itself.

An osteopath may use Osteopathic manual Manipulation (OMM) in order to align the body to be able to heal itself. The osteopath can perform joint manipulation, craniosacral therapy, soft tissue manipulation, trigger point release, and also spinal manipulation.


Diagnosing fibromyalgia is done based on symptoms, location of pain, and how the symptoms affect your ability to function. Diagnosing a patient is sometimes a medical team effort that involves specialists including a rheumatologist, neurologist, pain specialist, osteopath, naturopath, dentist or possibly a gynecologist if the patient is a woman.

A diagnosis is often difficult to reach even with a team of medical professionals collaborating on achieving a diagnosis. A diagnosis of fibromyalgia can take months or even years to reach. Misdiagnoses do happen often because the symptoms for fibromyalgia are so similar to other diseases and conditions; this is what draws the time period for reaching a diagnosis out so long.