The bad news: 

Still after all this time, if a disease or syndrome can be labelled a "woman's problem",  it either gets dismissed entirely or is called a psychiatric illness.

The good news:

The N.Y. Times is no longer considered the authoritative "paper of record" that it once was.  The standard of journalism there is now so poor that that the only people who still consider it important are those who read it for the Sunday Arts and Leisure section.  My guess is that this article was merely a pathetic attempt to stir up a controversy that would sell papers.  It will probably be forgotten by next week.

Although I am quite angry about this article,  I hope that we do not spend too much of our limited energy trying to refute it.  Those doctors who do understand FMS will not change their minds based on an unscientific article published in a non-medical journal.  Those who do not believe in and/or refuse to treat fibro will continue to do so.

I think that the best thing to do, publicly, is to simply ignore the article.  If friends, relatives etc. try to confront us with it,  I  think that the best response is to calmly point out how unscientific the article is and to refer them to the CDC/NIH for scientific information.  Repeat until the annoying person shuts up and goes away.

Privately, I think I'll scream briefly and throw a pillow at the wall.

 tabt