Symptoms
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There are many symptoms of lupus. Some are subtle; some can knock you out of commission. Some are noticeable to others, some only you can sense. Be it sensitivity to sunlight or severe joint pain and fatigue, each symptom tells a little bit about the nature of your experience with lupus and how best to treat the disease. Listed below you will find the most common symptoms.
Early symptoms of SLE are usually vague, nonspecific, and easily confused with other pathological and functional disorders. Symptoms may be transient or prolonged, and individual symptoms often appear independently of the others. Moreover, a patient may have severe symptoms with few abnormal laboratory test results, and vice versa. A range of clinical symptoms can be seen in patients with lupus over the lifetime of the disease.
- Fever
- Prolonged or Extreme Fatigue
- Loss of Appetite
- Changes in weight
- Butterfly Shaped Rash across the cheeks and nose
- Skin Rashes
- Hair Loss
- Photosensitivity (sun or light sensitivity)
- Seizures
- Chest Pain
- Painful, achy or swollen joints
- Muscle Pain
- Mouth or nose ulcers
- Raynaud’s Phenomenon
- Anemia
- Kidney involvement
Sources: Lupus Alliance of America, National Institute of Health