Autoimmune disorders impact primarily women
The term autoimmune disorder is, in ways, a giant grab bag of diseases, some rare and often unheard-of to all but those who suffer from them. After all, names like Hashimoto’s thyroiditis, Myasthenia gravis and Sjögren’s syndrome aren't everyday terms. Others—such as Type 1 diabetes, multiple sclerosis, rheumatoid arthritis and lupus—are much better known and much more common. Though there are more than 80 autoimmune disorders, individually many of them occur infrequently. But grouped together, autoimmune diseases—caused when our body mistakes our own cells for foreign invaders such as viruses, germs and antigens and goes on the attack—impact 23.5 million Americans.
They are also the fourth leading cause of disability among women as well as one of the leading causes of death, particularly among young and middle-aged women.
“What many people don’t know is that typically 80 to 90 percent of people with autoimmune diseases like lupus are women,” says Jan Ferris, chief executive officer of the Lupus Foundation of America, Indiana Chapter. “And typically the diagnosis happens most often between the ages of 15 and 44 years old."
