Has anyone developed an autoimmune or inflammatory back pain condition after Covid?

[Charlock]

Hi,

My health has really declined since my second bout of Covid end of 2023. It's all felt quite strange and confusing and I'm only piecing together a narrative retrospectively.

I felt I initially recovered from 2nd Covid. I then developed tennis/golfers elbows bilaterally (from some redecorating) which lasted absolute ages and wouldn't respond to physio, steroid injection. Increasing spells of joint pain and fatigue. Worsening gut pain. By 2025 I was having spells where I couldn't get out of bed, dizzy, fatigued. My low back which has been sore since my teens was also flaring up, getting stiff.

Autumn 2025 had the mother of all flare ups. Housebound for about a month, excruciating lower back pain. Realised I was hypermobile earlier that year, and was diagnosed with PoTS Nov 25. I never recovered my previous baseline.

Bloods all normal throughout. Seen by rheumatology couple of months ago, awaiting MRI in SIJs. Started on etodolac 2 weeks ago. Trying to determine if my back pain and stiffness is inflammatory. From what I've now read it fits the picture. Feeling better on etodolac so far.

TLDR - My question is this: has anyone developed an autoimmune/inflammatory condition which seems to have been triggered by Covid? I'm 49F. As I said, long term back pain but it seems to have changed over the past couple of years. TIA.

Bump - anyone?

I developed PoTs and an autoimmune condition post-Covid in 2023. My life hasn’t been the same since unfortunately although I’m gradually learning to pace myself better etc.

My son was diagnosed with pots, his consultant said it could have been caused by Covid, it seems to be affecting him less now. He doesn’t get to the point of fainting, but his vision goes completely black if he’s not mindful about getting up too quickly

I have a rare form of vasculitis triggered by Covid. I’ve spoken to a lot of people who have various types of vasculitis and other autoimmune or rare diseases that have probably been triggered by covid.

My mil developed severe knee swelling after her first Covid injection to the extent that her knee grew so painful and weak that she couldn’t put weight on it. The knee started bowing outward so she ended up having a knee replacement.

This all happened a day after her injection

There is a link between adrenal insufficiency and covid. If you haven’t had an early morning cortisol blood test (taken between 8-9am, must be that time to be diagnostically valid) make sure you have one. It’s often goes alongside pots and isn’t usually included in blood tests as it’s rare but much more common since Covid. I advise in an Addisons and adrenal insufficiency group and we have had so many people join since Covid. (I have Addisons, not related to Covid, where the adrenals themselves don’t work but the end result is the same, adrenal insufficiency). Worth looking into. Have a google all about adrenal insufficiency.

Me too.
Unusually I had very comprehensive all-clear blood tests about a month before my one & only covid, then got progressively worse toll hospitalised with a very rare form of vasculitis. I had around 6 covid vaccinations with no after effects prior to all this, so unlikely to be them, though always possible.

Mine wasn’t the vaccine although I have had vaccines after- i think covid itself causes a lot more than is currently looked at

I developed a range of things that were finally decided to be rheumatoid arthritis, fibromylagia, pernicious anaemia (which is an auto immune disease) after covid. For a while it looked like I had also developed some food allergies but they kept varying and in the end it was thought to be another auto immune disease that manifested in various intolerances that changed from one month to the next.

I said to my rheumatologist that I felt very sure covid was to blame as I'd always been in what was called 'rude health' prior to that. She said that there was a feeling among her colleagues that the incidences of previously healthy people developing auto immune conditions had risen like crazy since covid and she felt sure the true effects on the human body was really not yet understood- which makes sense given it was a novel virus.

I'm now in a situation where at 53 and in a professional role I can no longer work at all as I simply do not know from one day to the next if I am going to okay or bed bound.

I developed Graves disease immediately after being horribly ill with a virus that was most likely covid.
More than one doctor has told me I'm not the first case they've seen of a post covid auto immune condition. I'm doing much better now though, I hope your health improves. X