Frances,
You remind me of the too multitudinous medical professionals who think they know what they don't know. It took me over ten years of going to "doctors" to discover that I had fibromyalgia - on top of my birth disability. Fibromyalgia is another one of those illnesses that has been resisted by the powers that be to be determined legitimate and worthy of treatment. I finally found one physician who teaches at UCLA who knew what he needed to know about fibro because he HAS it himself. He's done years of research to determine its cause. Having seen over 5,000 patients and investigated it thoroughly, he found that fibro turns out to be a problem with the body storing and being able to release phosphates. And he has found a way to aid the body to dump phosphates. How many physicians did I see that kept telling me it was psychological? Dozens of ignorant men. "Psychological" often is a bad substitute for total and complete ignorance, and it is very common for women to be treated as though their symptoms are "all in their mind."
Showalter seems to be doing the same to women. I have not read her, only the posts here. Has she attacked fibro? Given her attitude and know it all attitude, I can't understand why she hasn't. Now here's a cure for ignorance. If Showalter and few more laypersons who speak about what they don't know could develope one of these illnesses, that would cure you too.
And then I must add, that the reason that many "professionals" resist adding these conditions to the laundry list of known illnesses is that they are long term illnesses, require long term care and the insurance industry and government would rather not have to foot the bills to treat people who have them. If they are "illegitimate" conditions then insurance and Medicare and Medicaid don't have to do right by people who have them.
Marta