Complications of Lupus
What to watch for when diagnosed with lupus
Although most people diagnosed with lupus are able to continue their daily activities, you may find that you
need to cut back on your activity level, get help with various tasks, or change the way you work because of
fatigue, joint pain, or other symptoms. You may find that you have to take time off from daily activities entirely.
Most people with lupus can expect to live a normal or near-normal life span. The prognosis largely depends on the
severity of your disease and whether major organs are affected. Lupus usually does not cause joint damage,
deformity, or crippling.
Medication for treating lupus may have serious side effects, and often it is difficult to separate the symptoms
that follow from the natural course of the disease versus the symptoms that follow from the medications used to
treat the disease.
Lupus was not well-understood many years ago and people with lupus usually died young of problems with vital
organs. Now with more effective treatments for the disease, people diagnosed with lupus have an increased life
expectancy, with over ninety percent of people diagnosed with lupus living five years after diagnosis.
Birth control, pregnancy, and lupus
Estrogen and prolactin are hormones used for hormone replacement therapy, birth control, and fertility treatments.
Although doctors don’t want to contribute to increased hormone levels, studies show that women taking hormones do
not have an increased risk of developing lupus or of exacerbating symptoms in individuals diagnosed with
lupus.
Lupus generally does not affect fertility, although medications you take for treating lupus might lead to irregular
menstrual cycles, which makes it difficult to plan a pregnancy. .
Women with lupus who become pregnant do not have increased risk of experiencing flares during pregnancy.
Kidney problems
Half of the people diagnosed with lupus experience kidney problems. Although these problems usually don't cause any
symptoms, some people may notice swelling in their legs or ankles that they have not had in the past attributable
to fluid retention. Abnormal urinalysis findings such as protein, blood, or white blood cells in the urine or
granular or red cell casts (clumps of red blood cells or kidney cells) in the urine may tip off the patient that he
or she has kidney problems.
In rarer cases, kidney problems become so severe that the kidneys stop working properly or fail completely.
Treatment can include strong medications to control the lupus, kidney dialysis, or a kidney transplant depending on
how severe kidney damage is.
Heart problems
Heart problems caused by lupus include hardening of the arteries that supply blood to the heart, inflammation of
the sac around the heart, diseases of the heart valves, and inflammation of the heart muscle.
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