I was 11 when diagnosed, so not exactly late in life, but not exactly early either. I have a similar story as robert321 - my mom was persistent and finally we got referred to a pulmonologist and he knew right away - we did the sweat test to confirm it.
My early symptoms were digestive mostly. I had really bad stomachaches all the time and lets just say our bathroom didn't smell like roses!! My entire childhood was a food allergy experiment, which quite frankly really sucked. I started wheezing and coughing a little bit around 8 years old and that's what made my mom get more aggressive with my doc. my cough was dry though and sounded "fake." Although my mutation is the most common (double deltaF508), clinically I was very healthy until my mid-teens. What others have said is correct, geneotype really can't be used as a marker for clinical outcome. Even statistics and FEV1 only give you so much information. Every person and every BODY is different; this is true even amongst identical twins!!
My early symptoms were digestive mostly. I had really bad stomachaches all the time and lets just say our bathroom didn't smell like roses!! My entire childhood was a food allergy experiment, which quite frankly really sucked. I started wheezing and coughing a little bit around 8 years old and that's what made my mom get more aggressive with my doc. my cough was dry though and sounded "fake." Although my mutation is the most common (double deltaF508), clinically I was very healthy until my mid-teens. What others have said is correct, geneotype really can't be used as a marker for clinical outcome. Even statistics and FEV1 only give you so much information. Every person and every BODY is different; this is true even amongst identical twins!!