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VA rating schedule, diagnostic code 5025
Fibromyalgia is a condition that causes widespread, ongoing pain along with tender points, and it can come with other problems like fatigue, sleep trouble, stiffness, headaches, irritable bowel symptoms, depression, or anxiety. The VA recognizes it in its rating schedule under 38 CFR 4.71a, where it is listed as diagnostic code 5025 (fibromyalgia, also called fibrositis or primary fibromyalgia syndrome). The VA's rule explains that "widespread pain" means pain on both the left and right sides of the body, both above and below the waist, that affects both the spine area and the arms or legs.
The VA rates fibromyalgia under diagnostic code 5025 at three levels based on how severe and how frequent the symptoms are. A 40% rating applies when symptoms are constant, or nearly so, and do not respond to treatment. A 20% rating applies when symptoms are episodic, with flare-ups often triggered by environmental or emotional stress or overexertion, but are present more than one-third of the time. A 10% rating applies when symptoms require continuous medication for control. So what drives a higher percentage is mainly how constant the symptoms are and whether they keep going despite treatment.
There is an important exposure-related pathway for fibromyalgia. Under 38 CFR 3.317, the VA may pay compensation to a Persian Gulf veteran who has a "qualifying chronic disability," and fibromyalgia is specifically named as a medically unexplained chronic multisymptom illness covered by this rule. To qualify under this presumptive route, the disability must have appeared either during qualifying service in the Southwest Asia theater of operations, or to a degree of 10 percent or more by December 31, 2026, and it cannot be tied to a known clinical diagnosis through history, exam, and lab tests. This presumptive pathway can ease the usual requirement of proving a direct link (a "nexus") between current illness and service.
This is general educational information about how the VA's rules work, not legal advice or a VA decision about any individual claim.
Grounded in federal regulations and VA guidance, independently reviewed June 2026. Educational information, not legal advice or a VA determination.
Across 5,973 real Board appeals for Fibromyalgia
A denial is often not the end either — remands (shown below) are sent back for more development and can still end in a grant. These are historical outcomes, not a prediction of your case.
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Among the appeals that were granted or partly granted, the most common ways Fibromyalgia was linked to service:
In appeals where Fibromyalgia was the only condition decided and the Board granted it, the rating most often assigned was:
These appeals involved a recognized exposure — which can mean the link to service is presumed, with no nexus to prove:
The Veteran's migraines and fibromyalgia are presumed to have been caused by exposure to fine, particulate matter in Southwest Asia. The bilateral knee condition is at least as likely as not related to service. The low back disability is also at least as likely as not related to service. The bilateral lower extremity radiculopathy is at least as likely as not related to the service-connected low back disability. The acquired psychiatric disability (anxiety) is at least as likely as not related to service.,The Veteran's traumatic brain injury and cervical spine disabilities are remanded due to a lack of a VA examination.
The Veteran's IBS is granted a 30% evaluation. The claims for chronic sinusitis, non-allergic rhinitis, fibromyalgia, anxiety, and depression are denied. The claim of service connection for bilateral hearing loss is also denied.
The Board has granted service connection for migraines, but has remanded the issue of service connection for fibromyalgia due to a lack of relevant medical records.
The Veteran's claim for an earlier effective date for the grant of service connection for fibromyalgia was denied.,The Veteran's claim for a rating in excess of 40 percent for fibromyalgia was denied.
The Veteran's fibromyalgia has resulted in widespread musculoskeletal pain, tender points, fatigue, sleep disturbance, stiffness, and headaches that are constant and refractory to therapy. The Board granted an initial 40 percent rating for fibromyalgia effective from August 10, 2022.
The Veteran's fibromyalgia is granted on a presumptive basis as a result of his service in the Southwest Asia theater of operations, including Kuwait and Saudi Arabia.
Jump to the decisions from a specific year.
New decisions are added every week, and older years are actively being backfilled — a year that looks thin or missing here (especially 2011–2017) is a gap in our library, not in the Board’s decisions.
Veterans appealing Fibromyalgia often look at outcomes for these too:
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