Fibro and pregnancy

[Welshlady2023]

hi, I am 26 weeks pregnant and have just been diagnosed with FM. I strained my neck in October and had some pain but nothing else prior to my pregnancy. After pulling a muscle in my lower back in my first trimester I have had major mobility issues. I’ve recently had a lot of pain in my shoulder and thoracic spine. I’m just a bit confused about my diagnosis as a lot of the symptoms cross over with pregnancy and musculoskeletal conditions. Has anyone ever been in this situation? Thank you

[Cat00]

Sounds a bit odd to be honest. I was diagnosed way before having my children, I struggled a lot with pain in pregnancy but that was to be expected. Because the hormones, like Relaxin, are flooding your body all my hypermobile areas got worse, all my joints were less stable, so things like sleeping became more painful. I would expect more pain in pregnancy bc of those things so you wouldnt necessarily need to attribute them to something other than pregnancy itself. Some people do develop fibro after childbirth though.

[Welshlady2023 in reply to Cat00]

Thank you for your response. This is my second child so potentially could have developed it a few years ago. I think I just have to try to get through the next few months and see what happens.

[Cat00 in reply to Welshlady2023]

My second was definitely worse than my first but that's not that surprising either really. Did you have traumatic first birth? Trauma seems a common pathway to fibro. You'd think the doctors would hold off a fibro diagnosis until 6 months after your birth though because it's such an unusual time for the body.

[Welshlady2023 in reply to Cat00]

I had pre-eclampsia towards the end of my first pregnancy but delivered within 30 mins. I had quite a nasty bladder kidney infection afterwards. I’m just finding everything really confusing at the moment as I’ve complained to physio of breathlessness which they put down to anxiety however I know it’s quite common to be breathless at this stage as I was last time. I’m just finding it mentally really challenging and struggling with the back pain. I am trying to accept the diagnosis and move on but I just feel so unsupported at the moment as a pregnant woman. I have requested a C section though as my lower back spasms very easily.

[Cat00 in reply to Welshlady2023]

They spent my whole pregnancy telling me how awful C sections were so that by the time they decided I was distressed enough to have one I was too scared to have it. 🙄I have all manner of mental health problems so I was considered high risk but they didn't really have much experience of mother's with chronic pain so they couldn't help anyway. And because of my chronic migraines I couldn't take any painkillers so they were at a loss really.

Im afraid most of us are on our own in regards to fibromyalgia, other than the lucky few. Personally it's not a diagnosis I would take on board until I recovered from pregnancy anyway.