Lupus patients most often keep a professional activity. Lupus disease sometimes forces you to redefine the professional project or possibly stop working, especially because of fatigue. It is difficult to list all the situations in which one can stop working when one has systemic lupus. In practice, a distinction is made between acute and chronic situations. In acute situations, any progressive complication of systemic lupus such as the occurrence of polyarthritis, kidney damage, infectious pneumonitis justifying hospitalisation, will require as a result a work interruption, the duration depending on the exact situation, until the resumption of work is possible. More definitively, depending on the type of profession and especially the type of impairment, a very prolonged work interruption may sometimes become necessary. We can mention end-stage kidney failure requiring dialysis. A distinction must be made between temporary incapacity to carry out work, which may justify the prescription of a fixed-term sick leave, and permanent incapacity linked to a worsening of systemic lupus. Depending on the context, this may justify professional redeployment or possibly disability.

Chronic fatigue is often present during lupus and sometimes requires a change in one’s professional project.