[Up and down--the experience of women with the rheumatic illness fibromyalgia]

Chronic pain, like that inflicted by fibromyalgia, is not much known, unpredictable and can emerge everywhere in the body. Yet 2 to 4% of the population suffer from this disease, of which 73 to 88% are women. In fact fibromyalgia is more wide spread than the more known rheumatoid arthritis. This research work presents the experience of women in their struggle against this incurable disease and the progress made in the fight against it. The Chronic Illness Trajectory by Corbin and Strauss (1992) is used as a theoretical framework. Six women, over fifty years of age and suffering from fibromyalgia for over ten years, were interviewed. The interviews were audiotaped, transcribed verbatim and analysed using the grounded theory methodology. The instability during disease development, referred to in this paper as "up and down", is an important phenomenon. Along with the pain and "defencelessness" goes the feeling of "not being taken seriously". Results have proven that an interdisciplinary approach is the best way to help those that cope with fibromyalgia.