Hi Sushi,
There are a couple of things to consider in regards to your question.
Firstly, this board is not really representative of the whole lupus population. Many people with very mild disease (ie few symptoms) don't post here, because they are getting along just fine without needing our support. So many of the posters here are either new, undiagnosed or more badly affected by lupus.
I know one person with lupus who occasionally gets a swollen joint or two and is otherwise fine. Also someone else who had hairloss once and never anyother symptoms.
Secondly, lupus is a diagnosis given by a doctor based on their educated judgement. There is no one test that can definately rule in or out lupus. That means that there are certainly people out there who are not diagnosed but who do have lupus, and also people who have been diagnosed incorrectly with lupus when they don't have it at all. For example some GP's mistakenly believe that a positive ANA means someone has lupus. Occasionally people post here saying they've been told they have lupus by their GP based on a ANA, but they have no symptoms. In these cases, they have probably been misinformed.
Thirdly, the aim of treatment is to get rid of symptoms, so someone who is well treated hopefully will have few or no symptoms. That doesn't mean that without treatment they wouldn't have loads of symptoms. I think the number of people who are completely untreated and continue to have no or few symptoms is pretty low.
Having said all that, I think it is pretty unusual not to have fatigue and joint pain - both occur in more than 90% of all lupus patients.
Personally before treatment my list of symptoms was 3 pages. Even with excellent drug treatment now, fatigue and joint pain are a problem. I consider myself a middle of the road lupie - not the most mildly affected, but certainly not the worst affected.
Good luck, and may you stay reasonably well for a long long time:blush:
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