What is the VA rating for Fibromyalgia?

DC 5025's Note defines widespread pain as pain affecting both sides of the body, both above and below the waist, and both the axial skeleton and the extremities -- a threshold requirement before any of the three tiers can be assigned.

• The Note to DC 5025 reads: widespread pain means pain in both the left and right sides of the body, that is both above and below the waist, and that affects both the axial skeleton (i.e., cervical spine, anterior chest, thoracic spine, or low back) and the extremities.
• Without this specific pattern confirmed, none of the three tiers (40/20/10 percent) can be assigned, regardless of how the remaining symptom pattern is documented.
• RatingScope collects whether widespread pain has been confirmed as its own fact; without a Yes answer, the outcome is a disclosed needs-detail result rather than a computed rating.

Records to review: Rheumatology or primary care treatment records; Documentation of pain location and distribution.

DC 5025's qualifying-condition language lists symptoms -- fatigue, sleep disturbance, irritable bowel symptoms, headache, depression, anxiety, and Raynaud's-like symptoms -- that are also independently ratable under other RatingScope hubs.

• DC 5025 describes fibromyalgia's qualifying condition as widespread musculoskeletal pain and tender points, with or without associated fatigue, sleep disturbance, stiffness, paresthesias, headache, irritable bowel symptoms, depression, anxiety, or Raynaud's-like symptoms.
• Several of these listed symptoms are also independently ratable under other already-built RatingScope hubs: Chronic Fatigue Syndrome, IBS, Migraine, Mental Health, and Raynaud's Disease/Syndrome.
• DC 5025 itself contains no combining or dispatch rule, but the 1999 Federal Register rulemaking that created DC 5025 (64 Fed. Reg. 32410, 32411 (June 17, 1999)) states that overlapping symptoms not sufficient to support a separate diagnosis stay evaluated under DC 5025, while a separately diagnosed condition can be rated on its own as long as the same signs and symptoms are not counted twice.
• The anti-pyramiding rule (38 CFR 4.14) means different diagnosis names do not automatically create separate percentages when the same symptoms and functional effects overlap -- the courts' test for 'same disability' is overlapping symptomatology, not shared diagnosis, cause, or which condition is more prominent (Amberman v. Shinseki, No. 2008-7111 (Fed. Cir. 2009), adopting Esteban v. Brown, 6 Vet.App. 259, 261-62 (1994)).
• RatingScope discloses this consideration in plain language but does not decide, compute, or estimate whether a specific manifestation is distinct enough to be separately compensable; that determination requires case-specific review beyond this hub.

Records to review: Diagnostic records distinguishing between overlapping conditions; Treatment records documenting which symptoms are attributed to which diagnosis.

38 CFR 3.317(a)(2)(i)(B) names fibromyalgia as one of three illustrative 'medically unexplained chronic multisymptom illness' conditions (alongside chronic fatigue syndrome and functional gastrointestinal disorders) potentially eligible for Persian Gulf War presumptive service connection.

• This is a real, currently-in-force regulatory pathway distinct from DC 5025's own rating criteria -- it concerns service connection, not the rating percentage once service-connected.
• RatingScope does not determine service connection under this or any pathway; a veteran whose fibromyalgia may qualify should discuss this with a qualified representative rather than assume automatic eligibility.
• This pathway is disclosed because it is directly relevant to fibromyalgia specifically, not a generic service-connection disclaimer.

Records to review: Records documenting Persian Gulf War service dates and locations; Records documenting the fibromyalgia diagnosis and onset timing.