The Complete List Of Lupus Symptoms You Should Recognize, And What To Do
Knowing if you have lupus, a sometimes painful autoimmune disease, can be difficult. There could be numerous symptoms, but they may be so vague as to look like a different medical issue or nothing at all.
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Some of the most common signs include fatigue, headaches, swollen joints, light sensitivity and a skin rash, among others, according to the Mayo Clinic. That skin rash is one of the things that will be easiest to spot, and it occurs in about two-thirds of people with lupus. In fact, it is how the disease got its name — the butterfly-shaped lesions were once compared to the bite of a wolf, and lupus is the Latin word for that canine creature.
Outside of identifying those symptoms, there are resources to help determine whether you have lupus. They are no substitute for a doctor’s expert opinion, but the symptom tracker from the U.S. Office on Women’s Health lists the common ones as well as ones like unusual hair loss and mouth sores. It also offers a way to record the history of the symptoms.
The Lupus Foundation of America has a symptom checklist that also reviews the age ranges and ethnic groups that are more at risk for developing lupus — Hispanic, Asian, black and Native American women are much more likely than white women to have the condition, the organization says.
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