I was about 30 when I noticed symptoms, but I didn't get diagnosed until I was about 45. My first symptom was getting up in the morning and not feeling rested. I wondered why if I slept all night and woke up naturally, why didn't I feel better? It all escalated from that until I thought I was going to have to go on disability before I found out what it was and finding ways of making myself feel better. It was a long hard road until that time though. It would have been nice to have been diagnosed sooner so I and my daughter wouldn't have suffered so much for so long.

Susan

I had bad costocondritis when I was in my 20s. No doctor could figure out why. I was always going to the chiropractor for "pains" that were unexplained. I seemed to never have energy. I've had depression/anxiety for 30+ years.

I started having very bad, allover, body pain when I was about 44. I was diagnosed with fibro 7 months later. I'm 53 now.

There may be something to what you are saying. There are several factors that I attribute to getting fibro. I was abused as a child. I was also forced to work very hard on dad's dairy and hog farm. Lifting way too much for a child my age. I also had mono when I was in 7th grade. I spent an entire month in bed, and could not get up, except to go to the bathroom. I also had a total hysterectomy when I was 43, just before all the severe body pain started. For me, it may be a combination of all of these things.

Interesting thread.

Thank you Susan and IdaJoy. I wish there were a way that this forum could somehow influence the medical research being done for FM. It is such a rich resource of experiences. Plus, since we are dealing with it, many of us know more about the condition than our doctors. LOL! It's not their fault - they have TONS of conditions to sift through. But it really would be nice to have our combined experiences analyzed by someone.

I'm pretty sure that my journey with Fibromyalgia started in my teens. Unrefreshed sleep, "growing pains", depression and other symptoms were all part of my catalog of health complaints. I also have quite a few of the underlying conditions that can be associated with FMS. Back then, no one knew what it was and/or you were just a hypochondriac. I wasn't diagnosed until my 50's when I was experiencing a high level of stress and then a disc blew in my lower back. The whole puzzle finally came together.

Oh, I agree. Looking back through my journey, there were tell-tale signs since my 30's. I'll be 63 in June, and I look back on some of the exhausting times, the bouts of pain, the IBS, reflux, pain seemingly from and out of nowhere. I believe my mother had this, but it wasn't something diagnosed back in her day. The migraines, facial pain, digestive issues, etc. She was always exhausted, poor thing.

My pain management doc said that he rarely sees fibro in his older patients (65+ yr old), but sees it with younger patients. So I asked him does this mean I will outgrow fibro when I get old? He said, possibly! He thinks that younger people have to deal with more stress in their lives than old people. So I hope I will outgrow it someday!

Don't count on out growing fibro. I think that doctor needs to study Fibromyalgia a lot more then just doing conjecture on his part. Putting fibro in the "she's just having stress" category, is quite demeaning to those of us who have it.

I would also wager that there is something to many of us being so used to pain that we don't know anything is wrong. Fantod, you brought up a good point about the teen years. I remember always having pain from something, particularly my menstrual cycle. When I complained about that to my doctor, he just said that some women have more pain than others. So I just kind of accepted that I was unlucky in that respect and was going to have to live with pain. Then as time progressed I went to the doctor about depression and other pains. These were all dismissed as well. I eventually started being treated like a hypochondriac too. How sad that so many of us have to travel this road. It is bad enough that we are already in pain, only to be told that it isn't real, then finally to have FMS recognized after years of suffering.

Symptoms definitely started for me in my teens now that I look back on it.. at first doctors mentioned chronic fatigue and put me on thyroid meds... I also had to get an endoscopy for constant stomach issues and they said IBS... then in my 20s I was always having back and muscle pain but it was attributed to "pinched nerves" and "stress"... here I am in my early 30s and everything has gotten a thousand times worse... but still it was "stress" and MRIs hinting bulging discs that "shouldn't be bothering me so much". The only reason I think all of this finally got attention is because I broke out into insane hives all over my body (an actual visible thing that couldn't be ignored). With it came joint pain which still hasn't gone away and so as all the tests came back negative for RA, Lupus etc. they just shrugged and said Fibro... sigh..