Familial issues re ME and fibromyalgia

[dorothyt]

I was diagnosed with Lupus mainly cutaneous 16+ years ago which took 12 years to diagnose and the more recent diagnosed of ME 2years ago with a history of ME symptoms spanning back 7+ years.
My younger sister has a preliminary diagnosis of Fibromyalgia with symptoms spanning back 9 years since the birth of her second daughter.
My elder sister has many overlapping symptoms of both me and my sister and a preliminary diagnosis of poly myalgia complicated by the fact that she also has Graves' disease diagnosed when she had her son 20 years ago. She is now 50.
My mum also has/had poly myalgia and bad osteoporosis, she is now 68 years old.
Can you shed any light on familial tendencies like ours, and if genetic counselling would be an avenue worth seeking?
We all live in different areas. North Yorkshire and the Lothians in Scotland.

[Dr Charles Shepherd]

Dorothy

There is growing evidence from well conducted research studies to indicate that genetics - as with many other medical conditions: breast cancer, heart disease, arthritis - play a role in the development of ME/CFS in that what you inherit in your 'gene pool' from both parents may help to predispose you to develop ME/CFS when the right precipitating factor (often a viral infection) comes along and triggers ME/CFS

And this probably helps to explain why some families report that there are other blood members who have ME/CFS, or a related condition such as FM, or possibly an autoimmune disease (as there is evidence that there is an autoimmune component in some cases of ME/CFS)

Please note that this does NOT mean that you can directly pass ME/CFS to a member of your family - as is the case with some inherited conditions

Hope that is not too complicated!

If you want to follow this up the genetic research is summarised in the Research section of the MEA purple booklet:

http://www.meassociation.org.uk/?p=4038

We can send a free copy to your GP if requested

[dorothyt]

Thank you Dr Shepherd
This is not complicated at all.
I left my Gp address for the purple book a while back with the ME association.
I would like to say that this forum has been invaluable and hope it is repeated in the future.