Bankground: The objective of this paper was to describe the first symptoms associated with systemic lupus erythematosus (SLE), including clinical manifestations, laboratory findings, prognoses, differences between men and women at the time of first diagnosis of SLE. Methods : We enrolled 223 patients with initial diagnosis of SLE. Their initial symptoms, demographic, clinical and laboratory data，prognoses and causes of death were analyzed retrospectively. Clinical manifestations and laboratory profiles were compared between male and female patients. Results: Compared with female patients, male patients had an earlier age of onset, a higher incidence of neuropsychiatric involvements, a lower incidence of leukocytopenia , and a higher score of SLE Disease Activity Index (SLEDAI）at diagnosis. Fever and malar rash were most frequent presentations at onset of SLE. The most common clinical manifestation at first diagnosis was fever, followed by arthralgia, malar rash, Raynaud ’ s phenomenon, arthritis. The liver function abnormalities included increased ALT,AST,ALP and γ-GGT.ANA were found in 100% of patients, followed by anti-dsDNA(LIA) in 72.1%, anti-Ro60 in 67.8%, anti-Ro52 in 62.3%, anti-nucleosomes in 55.7%. Conclusions: We identified clinical and serological manifestations of Chinese SLE patients at first diagnosis. Male patients showed a distinctive manifestation including younger age of onset，a higher incidence of CNS manifestations, a higher score of SLEDAI compared to females.