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Fibromyalgia has also been called a "wastebasket" diagnosis, usually meaning that the doctor doesn't acknowledge real pathology or consistent disease. Some doctors and medical researches don't believe that people "just have" Fibromyalgia. They suspect that other diseases like for instance Lyme disease or spine problems are undiagnosed and mistaken for Fibromyalgia or other syndromes like Myofascial syndrome. They suspect multiple diseases might be captured with the label Fibromyalgia. Also some believe every case of Fibromyalgia has a cause, like whiplash, Arnold Chiari or cervical stenosis, Lyme disease, mycoplasma or viral infections, chronic Epstein Barr mono, lupus or rheumatoid arthritis.

More dangerous still is that the Fibromyalgia diagnosis gives a label for insurance billing that allows doctors to now explain away huge varieties of symptoms. This has only been lately acknowledged to be very dangerous to the Fibromyalgia patient. According to a report in the British Medical Journal, Febr. 2002, FMS patients die more often from cancer probably because their doctors don't listen to them when they complain of their initial symptoms and the diagnosis is often made too late. The FMS diagnosis can be used as an excuse for doctors not to think.

Ordinary laboratory tests are unlikely to show anything unusual, and the diagnosis is usually made from the history and physical exam. Upon physical examination, the Fibromyalgia patient will be sensitive to pressure in certain areas of the body called tender points. To meet the traditional diagnostic criteria, patients must have:

A. Widespread pain in all four quadrants of their body for a minimum of three months

B. At least 11 of the 18 specified tender points

These 18 sites used for diagnosis cluster around the neck, shoulder, chest, hip, knee and elbow regions. Over 75 other tender points have been found to exist, but are not used for diagnostic purposes.

Although the criteria focuses on tender point count, a consensus of 35 Fibromyalgia experts published a report in 1996 saying that a person does not need to have the required 11 tender points to be diagnosed and treated for FMS. This criteria was created for research purposes and many people may still have Fibromyalgia with less than 11 of the required tender points as long as they have widespread pain and many of the common symptoms associated with Fibromyalgia.

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