A chronic condition causing widespread muscle pain, fatigue, and tender points.
Medical records from your doctors or specialists that document widespread pain, tender points, and any associated symptoms — such as fatigue, sleep problems, stiffness, or depression — form the core of evidence at every level. Records showing where your pain is located help establish that it meets the regulation's definition of widespread pain covering both sides of the body, above and below the waist, and in both the axial skeleton and the extremities.
For a 40% rating, evidence that your symptoms are present almost all the time and have not improved despite treatment is key. Treatment records showing multiple therapies tried without lasting relief support this level. For a 20% rating, records or notes describing flare-ups triggered by stress or overexertion, and showing those flares happen more than one-third of the time, are relevant. For a 10% rating, prescription records and treatment notes confirming you require ongoing medication to manage symptoms help support that level.
Your own statements, or statements from family members or caregivers, describing how often symptoms occur and how they affect your ability to work or carry out daily activities can also help connect the medical findings to the rating criteria.
Conditions that are often caused or made worse by this one. If you have any of these, they may be claimable as secondary service connection.
