My illness began with EBV/Mono as well but this isn't the case with everyone.

I have had it twice about 36 years ago. I still have the EBV which is dormant in my system. I now have both FM and CFS.

I had a positive and active EBV test and dx'd with CFS a few years prior to fibro. I had the flu this past winter...the REAL flu (since CFS sufferers feel like they always have the flu). It triggered the EBV again and I was almost bed ridden with nothing but rest and fluids for a few weeks. Just had another 3 days of not being able to hardly get out of bed from fatigue. Some days I think the CFS is worse than the fibro. At least I can take pain meds for fibro pain but NOTHING helps the severe exhaustion ....

I now know that I have had fibro my entire life. I got mono about 10 years ago and have had CFS ever since. Now both of them are pretty much out of control.

Wow I never even thought about that! I had mono about 10 years ago!

Yup, I have EBV....

had mono about 9 years ago, bad case of it. Now i have thyroid disease and FM

I had mono as a child....probably 13 yrs old or so. Then had some minor symptoms of fibro during teen years, but nothing too intense, and didn't connect any dots.

After a horrific bout of the flu at age 26, fibro hit full force....all symptoms very intense, and it has never gone away. So idk....may be a connection.

HUGS from down south :)

I also had mono when I was a teenager and had a relapse. It also acted up again last year, which I didn't know it could do, but when your run down It can rear its head again.

It's interesting how many Fibro sufferers have had it...I know there are different strains of it, maybe one leads to Fibro...who knows?

I was sick for about six weeks in 1990 - six years before I was diagnosed with FM. I had all the symptoms of mono and was tested several times, each time negative.

I dragged myself to work every day but was so tired I thought I'd never feel good again.

Still, it wasn't until after three years in a severely abusive relationship that I was diagnosed with fibromyalgia (after I left).

I would love to find there is a viral connection as that would give more hope (in my mind) for finding a treatment/cure, but like with everything else, it only seems to apply to a subset of us, not all of us.

I had mono about 18 years ago. Last year when I finally went to my fibro doc the pint of blood tests she had done came back that I have chronic Epstein-Barr virus, my body can't keep it dormant. So I have fibro, chronic fatigue and chronic Epstein-Barr.

@PeaceN2You - I know how that feels. When I had glandular fever I was originally told that the blood test had come back negative. I continued to fight to go to work but was really ill. I went back to the doctors a few months later still complaining of being ill and this one said "well I can see from your notes that your blood work came back positive for EB". The stupid receptionist had told me the wrong results so when I should have been resting and getting over it, I was trying to work. I still think thats why my body never recovered and I developed FM. But maybe as ewieners says there are different strains of the EBV and some cause FM?

My doctors are really stupid, its taken 6 years to get a diagnosis of FM and it was me who went in there and told them it was what I had (they did confirm it btw!) ! x

I think it may not only be viral but I think it may be contagious to those who are pre-disposed. How else do you explain all these new people getting it?