Asbring, Pia, Närvänen, Anna-Liisa · Qualitative health research · 2002 · DOI
This study interviewed 25 women with ME/CFS or fibromyalgia about their experiences with stigma—being doubted, judged, or not taken seriously. Women reported that stigma was most common before they received a diagnosis, and that having many different symptoms made it harder for others to believe they were truly ill. People sometimes questioned whether the illnesses were real or blamed them on emotional problems rather than physical causes.
Understanding stigma experiences is critical for ME/CFS patients because stigma can delay diagnosis, worsen isolation, and reduce access to appropriate care. This research validates that patient stigmatization is a real documented phenomenon linked to disease characteristics, helping healthcare providers and the public recognize and reduce harmful attitudes toward people with these illnesses.
This study does not establish how prevalent stigma is across all ME/CFS populations, as it included only 25 women and may not represent men, different ethnic groups, or patients with different healthcare experiences. It also cannot determine whether stigma causes specific health outcomes, only that it occurs and patients employ various coping strategies to manage it.
About the PEM badge: “PEM required” means post-exertional malaise was an explicit required diagnostic criterion for participant inclusion in this study — not that PEM was studied, observed, or discussed. Studies using criteria that do not require PEM (e.g. Fukuda, Oxford) are tagged “PEM not required”. How the atlas works →
The first block is for the primary paper and is the citation you should use in research work. The atlas-snapshot line only applies if you are specifically referring to this atlas’s reading of the paper on the date shown.
Primary citation
Asbring, Pia & Närvänen, Anna-Liisa (2002). Women's experiences of stigma in relation to chronic fatigue syndrome and fibromyalgia.. Qualitative health research. https://doi.org/10.1177/104973230201200202
BibTeX
@article{mecfsatlas-asbring-2002-women-experiences,
author = {Asbring, Pia and Närvänen, Anna-Liisa},
title = {Women's experiences of stigma in relation to chronic fatigue syndrome and fibromyalgia.},
journal = {Qualitative health research},
year = {2002},
doi = {10.1177/104973230201200202},
note = {PubMed: 11837367},
url = {https://www.mecfsatlas.com/evidence/asbring-2002-women-experiences},
}Atlas snapshot reference
ME/CFS Atlas. Generator v1 / Scanner v1.4 / policy v0.1. Accessed 2026-05-30. https://www.mecfsatlas.com/evidence/asbring-2002-women-experiences
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