@ChrisMayLA6 @unchartedworlds i wanna be very cautious and respectful in offering my perspective:

im a former microbiology student who did some work in governmental health policy. i advise patients to be on high alert if they receive this dx. in the public health system (not the private one), fnd is a common dx because it saves money. dont test, dont find, dont treat.

fnd is common because public health does not want to find the underlying biomechanisms behind debilitating symptoms, esp in female patients. ive seen patients with cancer, autoimmune diseases, connective tissue diseases, spinal cord injuries, and serious nutritional deficiencies have their access to care taken away because someone gave up, shrugged, and called them functional. once its in your chart, its not coming out.

scientists will go out of their way to find the cellular mechanisms in patients who have been labeled functional. their papers get published and theyre beautiful to read. the researchers advocate for patients and ask physicians to do comprehensive workups instead of settling for "functional".

when i caught up on the latest literature on fnd (by researchers who believe that it is a legitimate disorder), i started to understand why other researchers look down on those authors. im not saying one is right and the other is wrong, just that i have empathy for the cellular biologists now.

please be aware that something very dangerous is going on, bigger than "unexplained symptoms." research teaches you to be curious, public health teaches you to cut costs.

@pastelexuvia @unchartedworlds

Hmmm.... maybe so; but my wife has all had an operation for a shunt to treat one symptom that did some but not much good.... but equally, as you say once the diagnosis was confirmed Neurology were happy to sign us off as there was nothing more they believed they could do (saving money, as you point out)