Selena Gomez’s kidney transplant: Young, minority women disproportionately affected by lupus
The disease is challenging to diagnose
Adapted from a story by The Washington Post’s Ariana Eunjung Cha.
On Thursday, Selena Gomez shocked her 126 million Instagram followers by revealing that she had disappeared from the public eye this summer because she was getting a kidney transplant because of lupus, an autoimmune disorder that can damage organs.
Her fans had questions.
Many wondered how someone so young and seemingly healthy — Gomez, 25, made numerous appearances this spring and looked radiant — could suddenly need such a radical surgery. Some commented that perhaps her case was atypical.
What is lupus?
Lupus, in which the body’s immune system turns against itself, strikes women of child-bearing age at the highest rates.
- Those who are minorities are especially vulnerable.
- Only about 10 percent of white women with lupus progress to kidney failure.
- About 20 to 40 percent of African American or Hispanic women progress to kidney failure.
Symptoms of lupus
The disease is challenging to diagnose, because, in its early stages, it looks like many other conditions.
- People with lupus may first experience fatigue, joint pain or a little bit of rash on their bodies.
- This can go on for a long time before their doctors realize it is more serious.
Causes of lupus
No one knows exactly what causes lupus.
- More than 60 genes have been identified as putting people at higher risk, but environmental factors also seem to play a large role.
- Some scientists believe that certain viral infections may trigger lupus.
- There is evidence that different organic pollutants and even exposure to radiation through substances like uranium could activate the disorder.
Selena’s kidney transplant
While kidney failure is a serious, life-threatening complication of lupus, the number of people having successful treatment with transplants is increasing. People have two kidneys but need only one.
In Gomez’s case, the donor was one of her best friends, actress Francia Raisa, who has appeared on “The Secret Life of the American Teenager” and played a hockey player-turned-figure skater in one of the recent remakes of “The Cutting Edge.”
Life after transplant
Many women with lupus who undergo transplants go on to live long, healthy lives, says Gary Gilkeson, associate dean at the Medical University of South Carolina and chairman of the Lupus Foundation of America’s medical-scientific advisory committee.
There’s something about the immunosuppressants that transplant patients must take to prevent rejection of the new organs that also keeps lupus at bay.
“I think it’s important to emphasize that lupus patients can lead relatively normal lives,” Gilkeson said. “[Selena] will be able to resume her career … and having children is possible.”
In the Instagram post in which she shared a picture of herself and Raisa lying side-by-side on hospital beds, Gomez said she hopes to share more of her story in the coming months and directs her followers to the Lupus Research Alliance website.
“Lupus continues to be very misunderstood,” Gomez wrote, “but progress is being made.”
