They can be infections, photosensitivity, pregnancy, stress, surgery, any insult to the body can trigger it into full-blown lupus. Women, primarily in their childbearing ages between 20-40, minorities are more affected, Hispanic, Asian Americans, children as young as age 7. There also needs to be 11 symptoms met by the American College of Rheumatology. People need to know that along with the positive ANA test, they need to meet 4 out of the 11 criteria for a positive diagnosis of lupus. And, the difficulty here in diagnosing lupus is people don't always present with 4 of the 11 criteria and diagnosis can take as long as 3-8 years.
Symptoms can come and go and mimic other diseases.
I was told that I have lupus. Now, I was told that it is just discoid. It refers to the skin. Because the symptoms come and go, they may mimic other diseases. Discoid IS Lupus, just not the systemic form, thank God.