Lupus Vs. Rheumatoid Arthritis: Overlapping Symptoms, Difference Between Rheumatoid Arthritis, Different Diseases

Lupus vs rheumatoid arthritis is about how each disease impacts your immune system, your joints, and the rest of your body.

You contend with lupus as something that can affect countless organs, from the skin to the kidneys, heart, and brain.

You encounter rheumatoid arthritis primarily in your joints, with swelling, pain, and permanent destruction.

There’s overlap in symptoms, so some definitive points on tests, treatment, and day-to-day impact will assist the main guide.

Key Takeaways About RA And Lupus

• We’re talking about two completely different autoimmune diseases where RA primarily attacks your joints and lupus can impact your skin, joints, kidneys, heart, lungs, and nervous system. Knowing which organs are involved helps you and your doctor select appropriate tests and treatments.

• You’ll experience common symptoms like joint pain, swelling, and fatigue. Lupus tends to cause rashes and organ issues, whereas rheumatoid arthritis typically causes persistent, erosive joint damage. Look for patterns such as morning stiffness, photosensitive rashes, and fluctuating fatigue to help distinguish them.

• Joint patterns, skin changes and organ symptoms are practical ways you can differentiate these conditions. If there is symmetrical, destructive arthritis, it’s more likely to be rheumatoid arthritis. If there is reversible joint pain, skin rashes and organ issues, it’s lupus.

• You take advantage of focused testing with autoantibodies and imaging, such as ANA and anti-dsDNA for lupus, RF and anti-CCP for RA, and X-ray, ultrasound or MRI for joint and organ evaluation. Bringing together your symptom history with laboratory and imaging findings provides the best diagnosis.

• You might be prescribed the same first-line treatments: NSAIDs, corticosteroids, and DMARDs. Drug selections and doses are customized to your specific diagnosis, affected organs, and disease seriousness. Work closely with your care team to monitor flares, adjust medicines, and track fatigue and pain over time.

• As a woman of childbearing age, it’s important that you discuss family planning and hormonal changes with your doctors, as both lupus and rheumatoid arthritis can impact pregnancy and require medication changes. This means that coordinated care with rheumatology and obstetrics can facilitate safer pregnancies and healthier long-term outcomes.

Rheumatoid Arthritis Vs Lupus Overview And Systemic Lupus Erythematosus

As we’re dealing with two chronic autoimmune diseases here that can appear alike on the surface, they behave very differently over time. Both RA and lupus can cause joint pain, stiffness, and swelling, and both stem from your immune system mistakenly attacking your own tissues. That attack causes chronic inflammation, gradual damage, and if untreated, actual restrictions in your movement and daily life.

In RA, the primary target is the synovial lining within your joints. That thin layer becomes thick, hot, and swollen, which is why you wake with fingers, wrists, or feet that are stiff and take more than a half hour to loosen. Rheumatoid arthritis can impact joints on both sides of your body in the same way, such as both hands or knees.

Over time, that persistent inflammation can erode cartilage and bone and deform the shape of your joints. RA remains largely joint-focused, but in approximately 15 to 25 percent of patients, it extends beyond the joints and impacts the lungs, heart, or blood vessels, increasing the risk of pulmonary fibrosis or premature cardiovascular disease.

Lupus, most frequently systemic lupus erythematosus (SLE), is more generalized. Your immune system can attack joints, skin, kidneys, brain, blood cells, and more. You may experience migratory joint pains, a butterfly rash on your cheeks, mouth sores, alopecia, pleuritic chest pain, or edema secondary to nephropathy.

Symptoms can flare and calm down, which can make patterns harder to track. Women face a higher chance of both: roughly 2 to 3 times higher for RA and up to 9 times higher for lupus. Diagnosis typically requires a combination of history, exam, lab tests such as rheumatoid factor, anti-CCP, or ANA and anti-dsDNA, along with imaging like X-rays or ultrasound to differentiate these from other arthritic and autoimmune issues.

Treatment partially overlaps but is not identical. RA often depends on DMARDs like methotrexate and on biologics that inhibit particular immune signals. Lupus treatment may consist of antimalarial medications like hydroxychloroquine, steroids, and more potent immunosuppressants when there is organ involvement like the kidney or brain.

Neither one is cured, yet with consistent care and close follow-up, many people hit a point of good control and remain active. Research keeps providing more options and better ways to tailor treatment to your specific pattern of disease.

Lupus Vs Rheumatoid Arthritis Symptoms

You live with two diseases that frequently appear similar at first look. Both lupus and RA are autoimmune diseases that can cause long-term pain, fatigue, and life restrictions, but they don’t harm your body in the same manner.

Shared symptoms you might notice include:

1. Joint pain and stiffness – usually in hands, wrists, knees or feet. The pain may be worse in the morning or after rest.
2. Joint swelling and warmth – inflamed joints may be puffy, warm, and tender to touch.
3. Exhaustion is profound, “full-body” weariness that is occasionally debilitating and difficult to account for.
4. Low-grade fever and general malaise – you might feel “flu-like” without an infection.
5. Muscle aches – soreness in muscles around painful joints.
6. Flares laying on top of flares – good and bad days, symptoms ebb and flow.

With lupus, symptoms frequently spill over outside your joints. You might experience a “butterfly” rash across your nose and cheeks, other sun-sensitive rashes, headaches, brain fog or symptoms of kidney strain, like swelling in your legs or foamy urine.

Lupus can cause chest pain, shortness of breath and neurological issues if your heart, lungs or central nervous system are affected. RA primarily affects your joints and can cause permanent damage and deformity if it remains active, particularly in the small joints of your hands and feet.

Extra-articular problems do arise in RA as well, such as lung disease or heart troubles in 15 to 25 percent of individuals, but organ damage is less of a core component to the disease compared to lupus. Symptom severity can swing widely in both cases.

One individual may have minor joint discomfort and be able to work full-time with few restrictions, while another may endure recurrent flares, lupus-induced kidney issues, or advancing joint deterioration caused by RA. Women carry much of this burden: you are up to nine times more likely to get lupus and about two to three times more likely to develop RA than men.

1. Joint Pain Patterns

In RA, joint pain tends to appear in a distinct pattern known as symmetrical polyarthritis. You tend to experience it on both sides of your body simultaneously, like in both wrists, both hands, or both ankles. The small joints at the bases and middles of your fingers, your wrists, and the balls of your feet tend to be hit first, with morning stiffness that can persist past 30 to 60 minutes and eases as you move.

Over time, this inflammation can grind down cartilage and bone, so you might notice visual deformities such as fingers drifting towards the pinky, permanently bent fingers, or sunken arches in your feet. Lupus joint pain functions differently. Up to 90% of people with lupus have some form of musculoskeletal problem, but the arthritis is commonly less erosive.

Your joints may ache and swell, but X‑rays can appear near normal. Others have transient arthralgia where pain moves from joint to joint and then quiets, or nondeforming arthritis that aches mightily but does not erode the joint surfaces. You may have days with intense pain and stiffness, then months with very mild symptoms, particularly if your treatment allows the immune activity to remain at bay.

The distinction becomes most apparent when you examine damage over time. RA is more prone to cause ongoing, cumulative joint damage if it is not well managed. Lupus joint issues are generally more reversible with medication adjustments or improved flare control.

Your rheumatologist analyzes these patterns, along with bloodwork and imaging, to figure out whether your joint narrative aligns more with RA, lupus, or the uncommon overlap where both traits coexist.

| Feature

|

Rheumatoid Arthritis

|

Lupus Arthritis

| | --- | --- | --- | |

Typical joint pattern

|

Symmetrical polyarthritis

|

Often symmetrical, can be more shifting

| |

First joints involved

|

Small hand and foot joints, wrists

|

Hands, wrists, knees; pattern less fixed

| |

Erosive potential

|

High – joint erosion and deformity common

|

Low – usually nonerosive, nondeforming

| |

Morning stiffness

|

Prominent, often > 30–60 minutes

|

Present but can be shorter or more variable

| |

Long‑term joint outcome

|

Risk of permanent damage without treatment

|

Symptoms often reversible with good disease control

|

2. Skin Manifestations

Skin signs frequently provide you one of the most unmistakable hints that lupus, not RA, is fueling your symptoms. The classic malar rash in lupus is the “butterfly” pattern across the cheeks and over the bridge of your nose, typically sparing the folds around your nostrils.

Along with this, you may see discoid lesions: round, raised, scaly patches that can leave scars or pigment changes, often on the scalp, face, or ears. Most lupus rashes are exacerbated by sun or intense indoor light, so a day outside unprotected can spark redness, burning, and new eruptions within hours or days.

In RA, your skin tends to be silent. The most typical skin feature is a rheumatoid nodule, which is a firm, non-tender lump under the skin, often near pressure points like the elbows or the back of your heels. In more severe, long-term disease, RA can lead to vasculitic lesions, such as small painful ulcers on your legs or darkened spots from damaged blood vessels, but these are rare in early or mild RA.

Thanks to these distinctions, physicians frequently rely on your skin saga when making a diagnosis. If you have joint pain in addition to a sun-flared butterfly rash and maybe some discoid lesions, your clinician will be thinking lupus hard.

If you have erosive hand arthritis but only small nodules and no photosensitive rashes, RA is more likely.

3. Organ Involvements

Lupus is systemic and it burrows deeper into your organs. The kidneys are a key target: about half of people with lupus develop lupus nephritis, where immune complexes settle in the kidney filters. You may not experience any symptoms initially, so physicians monitor your urine for protein, blood, or casts and your blood for increasing creatinine.

If not controlled well, nephritis can progress toward CKD or even kidney failure. Outside the kidneys, lupus can inflame the lining around your heart (pericarditis) or lungs (pleuritis), cause shortness of breath from lung involvement, or introduce central nervous system issues such as seizures, mood changes, and cognitive problems often described as “brain fog.

RA may migrate outside the joints, but this is less integral to the disease. Approximately 15 to 25 percent of individuals with RA develop extra-articular complications as the disease course progresses, particularly if it is severe or inadequately treated.

You might have rheumatoid nodules in your lungs, interstitial lung disease with dry cough and breathlessness, or increased heart risk from chronic inflammation and vessel damage. RA-related vasculitis can affect blood vessels in the skin, nerves, or internal organs, although this is now rare with modern care when potent disease-modifying drugs are administered early.

Since lupus can impact nearly any organ system, continuous observation is vital. Your team can examine urine, kidney function, blood counts, liver tests, heart and lung imaging, and sometimes brain scans or spinal fluid if you have neurological symptoms.

This broad organ involvement is one of the key characteristics that distinguishes lupus from RA in routine clinical practice. When you demonstrate joint pain and multi-organ involvement, your treatment almost invariably shifts into a lupus-centric track, even if certain indications remind your physician of RA.

4. Fatigue Profiles

Fatigue lies at the heart of lupus and RA and often dictates your day more than pain. You could be exhausted from morning until night, require naps to survive the work day, or discover that activities like cooking or a walk to the store leave you wiped out.

This is not the same as normal muscle soreness after a workout; it is more like your body’s energy source has been downgraded to a lower wattage. In lupus, fatigue tends to wax and wane with flares of the disease. Some weeks your blood work will look barely abnormal, your joints not too swollen, but your exhaustion will be debilitating and disproportionate to exam findings.

Sleep disorders, mood changes, brain fog, and some medicines can all feed this cycle. You might find that sun exposure, infection, or stress causes a flare in both your rash and your fatigue.

RA fatigue is more likely to be tracked with active inflammation and pain. When your joints are hot, swollen, and stiff, your immune system is producing cytokines that cause body-wide fatigue. Chronic pain interferes with sleep as well, so unrefreshing sleep contributes another level of fatigue.

When RA treatment reduces inflammation, a lot of people see a corresponding decrease in daily fatigue. Monitoring your fatigue cycles is important under both conditions. Others maintain a brief journal or utilize a zero to ten scale each day, recording sleep, pain, stress, and activity.

These records assist your doctor in identifying whether your medications are truly enhancing your “real-life” energy or if you may require adjustments in treatment, sleep assistance, or support with mood and coping skills.

5. Systemic Flares

These are the periods of time when your autoimmune disease becomes more active and your symptoms get worse. You may experience new pain, swelling, or rashes, feel feverish or chilled, and observe blood tests for inflammation or autoantibodies increase compared to your baseline.

Lupus flares are usually a combination of joint and muscle

Diagnostic Biomarkers And Imaging

You deal with two big buckets of data when you sort out lupus vs rheumatoid arthritis (RA): blood tests and imaging. Neither one is effective in isolation. Your physician interprets them in conjunction with your symptoms and exam to arrive at a firm diagnosis and monitor the disease activity over time.

Antibody Profiles

Lupus, your lab work often begins with antinuclear antibodies (ANA). Most lupus patients are ANA-positive, but ANA can be detected in healthy individuals or in other autoimmune illnesses. Therefore, you cannot rely on this one marker alone.

More lupus-specific tests include anti-double-stranded DNA (anti-dsDNA) and anti-Sm (Smith). Anti-dsDNA tends to rise with disease flares, particularly when the kidneys are involved, while anti-Sm is less frequent but highly specific for lupus. You may observe antiphospholipid antibodies, which increase the risk of blood clots and pregnancy loss. They alter how your care team manages blood-thinning and pregnancy plans.

In RA, you look more at rheumatoid factor (RF) and anti-citrullinated protein antibodies (ACPAs), often tested as anti-CCP. RF is an older test and has low specificity. It can show up in infections, other autoimmune diseases, and even in 10 to 25 percent of older adults who do not have RA at all.

Screening for all three RF isotypes enhances the predictive power of the test for RA, but it still falls short of ACPAs. ACPAs, like anti-CCP, are now front and center for RA. These tests are highly specific, approximately 95%, so the great majority of people who test positive really do have RA and are not having a ‘false alarm’.

They can be detected with various assays, such as anti-CCP2 IgG ELISA or QUANTA Flash CCP3 IgG chemiluminescent assays. When developing the third-generation CCP3 antigen, scientists tested hundreds of citrullinated peptides in large cohorts of RA patients and controls, then used receiver-operating characteristic (ROC) curves to choose the cut-offs that best separated RA from non-RA.

Even still, sensitivity and specificity differ by platform. For instance, CCP3 IgG CIA has around 68.1% sensitivity and 98.5% specificity, so a negative test does not exclude RA, but a high positive, in the appropriate clinical context, makes RA very probable.

Here is a quick summary you can use when you read your own lab sheet:

• Lupus:

• ANA: very sensitive, not specific. Good as an entry test.

• Anti‑dsDNA: more specific. Links to kidney and flare risk.

• Anti‑Sm: highly specific, low sensitivity. Supports a firm diagnosis.

• Antiphospholipid antibodies: flag clot risk and pregnancy issues.

• Rheumatoid arthritis:

• RF (all isotypes): moderate sensitivity, low specificity, supportive only.

• ACPAs / anti-CCP: high specificity, help confirm and even predict RA.

Inflammatory markers like ESR and CRP sit in the background for both diseases. They don’t tell you which disease you have, but they show how ‘hot’ the inflammation is and they help you and your doctor gauge flares and treatment response.

Advanced Imaging

The imaging bridges the gap between what you feel and what your blood tests show. In RA, X-rays can demonstrate joint space loss and bone erosions, but this often occurs later in the disease. If you want to catch joint damage early, ultrasound and MRI step in.

Ultrasound can detect active synovitis, small joint effusions, and even early erosions in hands and feet prior to their appearance on plain films. MRI goes deeper and shows bone marrow edema, subtle erosions, tendon sheath inflammation, and small pockets of fluid around joints, all of which point to aggressive RA that may need tighter control.

In lupus, imaging of the joints often shows inflammation, but not much erosion, which matches the more “non‑erosive” style of lupus arthritis. An ultrasound of your hands, for example, might show synovial thickening and fluid, but it does not bite into the bone edges the way you see in RA.

Beyond joints, imaging plays a big role in checking organ damage. If your team suspects lupus nephritis, they may use renal ultrasound or other kidney imaging to look at size and blood flow, and rule out other causes of kidney problems before or after a biopsy. Similar logic applies to lung or heart involvement, where CT scans or echocardiograms help map out inflammation and scarring.

You use imaging to distinguish inflammatory arthritis from noninflammatory causes such as osteoarthritis or overuse strain. In OA, X‑rays and ultrasound typically reveal cartilage loss, bone spurs, and less active synovitis, whereas RA scans emphasize thick, inflamed synovium and erosions at the joint margins.

This distinction is important when you’re trying to determine whether you require potent immune‑suppressing drugs or more spatially‑focused mechanical approaches like physical therapy, braces, or surgery.

Across both lupus and RA, the best strategy lies in a combination of clinical exam, serology and imaging. You follow symptoms, lab markers and imaging over time to know if therapy truly is arresting damage and cooling inflammation – not just making you feel better, but protecting joints and organs in the long term.

Targeted Therapeutic Strategies

You treat lupus and RA by mapping therapy to disease activity and severity, not by applying a cookie-cutter approach. Drugs often overlap, but the goals can differ: in RA you mainly try to stop joint damage, and in lupus you protect organs like kidneys, brain, heart, and lungs.

First-line options for both often consist of NSAIDs to alleviate pain and stiffness, corticosteroids for short courses to rapidly quell flares, and DMARDs to reduce the immune system in the long run. For mild lupus, one steroid shot, plus HCQ and maybe a topical steroid cream, can be sufficient. For moderate disease, you typically need oral steroids and a maintenance dose of prednisone, then a slow taper.

In RA, methotrexate is often the anchor DMARD, sometimes with low-dose steroids while you wait for it to take effect. You witness more targeted application of immunosuppressive medications. For lupus, HCQ is a base drug for pretty much everyone, and stronger weapons like mycophenolate or cyclophosphamide roll out when organs are under threat.

If you have lupus nephritis, immunosuppression is not short term. Protocols often recommend at least 3 years of treatment, then cautious step-down. In RA, methotrexate, leflunomide or sulfasalazine decelerate joint erosion. Your doctor will continue to check labs, as frequent monitoring of blood counts, liver and kidney function is essential in both conditions.

They observe that new joint or organ damage is not always from active disease; it can be from previous flares or drug side effects. Biologic drugs altered the landscape for both. In RA, TNF inhibitors and other biologics target specific cytokines or cells that drive joint damage.

In lupus, these now include belimumab and anifrolumab, which block pathways associated with autoantibody production and interferon signaling, respectively, and are frequently introduced when conventional therapeutics fail.

Rhupus Syndrome Overlap

Rupus is a rare overlap disease where you have definitive evidence for both RA and SLE simultaneously. You don’t just have joint pain with a couple of lupus blood tests or mild lupus with stiff hands. You live with actual erosive RA-type joint damage with lupus-type immune changes and occasional organ concerns.

In Rhipus, physicians seek the erosive, chronic arthritis characteristic of RA in combination with lupus-specific autoantibodies and systemic symptoms beyond the joints. The term “rhupus” first showed up in 1971 to describe this mix: RA-like joint damage with one or more lupus-like organ hits, such as skin rash, kidney issues, or low blood counts.

Often they are initially diagnosed with RA or SLE alone, then years after, both exhibit. First symptoms onset at an average age of 35 years while a definitive diagnosis of rhupus is made around 45 years. This interval is usually four to seven years but can be longer.

Typical features you might see include:

• Erosive, symmetric arthritis in small joints, similar to classic RA.
• Morning stiffness and swollen joints for months or years.
• Lupus-specific antibodies (for example, ANA, anti-Sm) are not always tidy or stable.
• Systemic symptoms: deep tiredness, low-grade fever, weight loss, loss of appetite.
• Flares with exacerbated joint pain combined with “whole-body” symptoms such as asthenia.
• Possible organ issues seen in lupus include skin rash, mouth ulcers, and changes in the kidneys or blood.

Diagnosis remains difficult because blood tests don’t always provide a definitive label. Even antibodies you frequently associate with a single condition, such as anti-CCP for RA or anti-Smith for lupus, might not clinch the diagnosis. Your doctor instead weighs the full pattern: exam, imaging of joint damage, lab work, and organ checks over time.

Treatment is often borrowed from both RA and SLE plans. Most care teams administer methotrexate to calm joint inflammation, steroids to settle flares, and folic acid to ease methotrexate side effects. Since rhipus is rare and research is limited, your regimen will be highly individualized, depending on what systems are affected and how active your disease is.

A simple summary table that compares rhupus, “pure” lupus, and “pure” RA can help you and your doctor track what fits where: which symptoms you share with both conditions, which belong mostly to RA (like erosive damage on imaging), and which lean toward lupus (like kidney disease or certain rashes).

This side-by-side look can direct follow-up tests, drug selection, and how carefully to monitor for organ issues down the line.

Reproductive And Hormonal Impacts

Both lupus and rheumatoid arthritis (RA) affect women more than men, which points to a clear link with hormones. Estrogen and other sex hormones shape how your immune system works, so shifts across your life—puberty, pregnancy, and menopause—can change how active these diseases feel. You see this in many autoimmune diseases, not only lupus and RA, but in conditions like multiple sclerosis (MS).

If you lived with lupus or RA, your plans around pregnancy often required more consideration. Women with autoimmune diseases cite greater difficulties with fertility, and this is observed predominantly in RA. Some of this could be from the illness itself and some from medications such as methotrexate or cyclophosphamide, which can damage fertility and must be discontinued long in advance of attempting pregnancy.

Even if you never had ‘infertility’ in the classic medical sense, data show that women with RA and lupus tend to have fewer children than they desired, sometimes because of concerns about flares, drug hazards or miscarriage.

Pregnancy outcomes vary in lupus and RA, but both require close monitoring. Lupus, particularly if active or associated with antiphospholipid antibodies, increases the likelihood of miscarriage, pre‑eclampsia, and premature delivery. Pregnancy loss is a concern if SLE begins prior to completing your family.

RA usually quiets during pregnancy for most, but not all, and flares can come back after delivery. In both diseases, that means you might have to shift to pregnancy‑safer drugs months before getting pregnant and plan breast‑feeding around medication decisions.

Reproductive aging factors in as well. Menopause, your last period and 12 months of no bleeding thereafter, typically occurs around ages 49 to 52 in the West. Disease that begins postmenopausal often acts differently than disease beginning earlier, and work in RA, SLE, and MS indicates that changing hormone levels can alter flare patterns and acuity.

Continuous, collaborative care with a rheumatologist and an obstetric or fertility specialist allows you to align your treatment with your reproductive strategy during every life stage.

Conclusion

Lupus and rheumatoid arthritis have a lot of symptoms in common. They each take their own course. You know how each one acts in your joints, skin, blood, and organs. You saw how blood tests, scans, and obvious patterns of flares assist your care team to distinguish between them.

You witnessed how “rhupus” can muddy the waters and how hormones, pregnancy, and age can adjust your strategy along the way. That way your story remains personal, even if your diagnosis seems communal.

To proceed, discuss your specific combination of symptoms, test findings, and lifestyle objectives with your physician. Inquire about how your plan can accommodate your job, family, and future, not just your lab results.

Frequently Asked Questions

How can you tell if your joint pain is from lupus or rheumatoid arthritis?

Lupus typically results in joint pain accompanied by fatigue, rashes, and photosensitivity. Rheumatoid arthritis typically leads to ongoing swelling, stiffness in the mornings that lasts more than 30 minutes, and joint damage as the disease progresses. Blood tests and imaging confirm the cause.

What blood tests help differentiate lupus from rheumatoid arthritis?

Doctors typically order ANA, anti-dsDNA, and complements for lupus, and RF and anti-CCP for RA. In most people with lupus, ANA and specific antibodies are present, while in RA, RF and/or anti-CCP are present. Your physician reads them with symptoms.

Can you have both lupus and rheumatoid arthritis at the same time?

Yes. This is referred to as ‘rumpus syndrome’. You show features of both conditions: lupus signs (like rash or kidney issues) and rheumatoid arthritis type joint damage. It’s uncommon and requires close follow-up with a rheumatologist for customized treatment.

Do lupus and rheumatoid arthritis affect pregnancy differently?

Yes. Active lupus can push up risks such as preeclampsia, miscarriage, and preterm birth. Rheumatoid arthritis tends to feel better during pregnancy but can exacerbate after delivery. Make sure you plan pregnancy with your rheumatologist and obstetrician so they can adjust medicines safely.

Are treatments for lupus and rheumatoid arthritis the same?

Here are some medicines that overlap, like corticosteroids and traditional DMARDs like methotrexate or hydroxychloroquine. Biologics tend to be different. Rheumatoid arthritis targets joint inflammation more directly, whereas lupus treatment safeguards organs such as kidneys, skin, and brain.

What imaging tests help distinguish lupus from rheumatoid arthritis in your joints?

Ultrasound and MRI can reveal both inflammation and early damage. Rheumatoid arthritis imaging often finds erosions and joint space loss. In lupus, joints are typically inflamed but less eroded. Imaging confirms diagnosis in conjunction with your symptoms and blood work.

How do hormones and life stages affect lupus and rheumatoid arthritis?

Both disproportionately affect women and are frequently present during childbearing years. Flares or remissions may be triggered by hormonal changes, including puberty, pregnancy, and menopause. Birth control options and hormone therapy need to be discussed with your rheumatologist.