Thanks Shane,
I have been asked for my age of onset before by my doctors, but I never really knew exactly what they were asking. So I would just tell them that my problems have been happening for a certain amount of years. Now I know what to tell them.

Now that I know what onset is.... my age of onset, I believe would be at around 15, because that is when my hip problems began. My onset could be earlier than that, but I was already diagnosed with JRA, so I wouldn't want to mix up the symptoms. So I am going to say that my hips would have to be my first clue. I was diagnosed with AS at the age of 18, if I am not mistakened, and both hips got replaced at 19.

As a kid I was very athletic in sports, running and wrestling etc. I was even dangerous at times by jumping out of trees to scare my friends, doing stunts on my bicycles, and also during my teen years I was heavily involved in offroading on motorcycles. I was always getting banged up, and sometimes I got hurt pretty bad. That could be a reason why my AS has started so early, but I can't really say for sure.

Thanks for the info,
James

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HLA-B27+, JRA diagnosis in 1981, re-diagnosed as AS in 1988. Also iritis, colitis, and psoriasis. NSD + low carb helps me. My health makes it hard for me to post in a timely way.