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Conditions

Lupus

Lupus, or systemic lupus erythematosus, is a long-term condition in which the immune system attacks the body's own tissues. The main symptoms are joint and muscle pain, very heavy tiredness and rashes, often across the nose and cheeks and often brought on by sunlight. People may also have headaches, mouth ulcers, a high temperature, hair loss, and fingers and toes that go cold and change colour. It is more common in women, and more common in people of African, Caribbean or Asian family background. It is not contagious. It is diagnosed with blood tests that look for particular antibodies, and people are monitored with blood and urine tests, the urine tests checking for problems with the kidneys, which lupus can affect. There is no cure, but treatment helps: anti-inflammatory medicines, hydroxychloroquine, steroids and, for more severe disease, medicines that damp down the immune system. The NHS says to see a GP if you often get symptoms of lupus. Source: the NHS page on lupus.

This is a plain summary, not medical advice, and it is not a substitute for talking to your GP or your clinical team. For NHS information about lupus, speak to your GP or call NHS 111.

People who have talked about it

1 story, each one written in our own words from what the person said publicly themselves.

  • Selena Gomez

    Selena Gomez on lupus, failing kidneys and a transplant

    In October 2017 Selena Gomez talked to the American programme TODAY about the kidney transplant she had had that summer, and about the lupus that led to it. She had already told people it had happened, on her own Instagram account the month before. She said she had arthritis and that her kidneys were shutting down, and that her way of coping had been simply to keep going — she had not realised how much it was affecting her body. By the summer she had reached a point where, as she described it, it had become a matter of life or death. She said she had not wanted to ask anybody in her life for help, because the thought of asking someone for something like that was very difficult for her. She described what happened around the operation. She woke up afterwards, saw her family, went back to her room, and then began hyperventilating with a great deal of pain. Surgeons had to take her back in: an artery had turned, and she said that second operation lasted six hours where the usual procedure takes about two. She said she was very thankful that there are people who know what to do in that situation. Recovery, she said, meant bed rest, an hour of walking a day, no stairs, and constantly needing to ask for help with ordinary things — she gave washing and dressing as examples. She called it a brutal process. In a longer version of the same interview she said the surgery has left a permanent change to her body that she is aware of and that has changed how she dresses. She said she had chosen to make a private story public in the hope that it would help other people, and pointed at simple things anyone can do, including giving blood and putting yourself down as an organ donor. Nothing here is medical advice. Lupus affects people very differently, and most people who have it never need a transplant. The NHS says to see a GP if you often get symptoms of lupus.

Photographs, in order: Selena Gomez by Frank Sun / WikiPortraits (CC BY-SA 4.0).