This condition causes a wide range of symptoms that can seem unrelated or may be easily misdiagnosed as other conditions. The cause of this illness is still unknown, but as the disease progresses, the immune system begins to attack the insulating lining of the nerve fibers, called myelin, and eventually attacks the nerve fibers themselves.
This repeated progression leads to the formation of scar tissue - otherwise known as sclerosis, which gives the disease its name - and causes distortion and disruption in the nerve impulses in the brain and spinal cord.
This disease is not an equal opportunity attacker. The Mayo Clinic reports that women are twice as likely to develop MS as their male counterparts, while the Multiple Sclerosis Association of America (MSAA) puts that risk at three times as great. Researchers believe that hormones may play a significant role in the susceptibility to the disease, which would explain the gender discrepancy.
New reports put the risk as much as four times as high for women than men, which is far greater than previously believed. The condition affects more than 2.3 million people worldwide, although it is not contagious or directly inherited.
What Other Factors Play A Role?
While gender is a significant factor in determining one’s risk for MS, other factors, including age (most people are diagnosed with MS between the ages of 20 and 50), ethnicity (MS is most prevalent in Caucasians), and genetics - specifically a family history of MS - may also increase one’s chances of developing the disease.
Because there is no single test used to diagnose MS, an accurate diagnosis may be difficult and delayed. This is further complicated by the fact that no two patients have the same exact set of symptoms, and many of the common symptoms may mimic other illnesses or be overlooked in early stages.
While not all patients will experience the same set of symptoms, there are several common symptoms, which in combination, may signal that you have MS. If you are a woman experiencing any combination of the symptoms below, you should make an appointment to discuss with your doctor your risk factors and likelihood of having this or another chronic illness.
Muscle Dysfunction
Because MS attacks the nerves, many MS patients will experience a range of muscle problems in the disease’s early stages. These symptoms may include muscle spasms, or involuntary muscle contractions, numbness, or weakness in the limbs. Many MS patients will also experience difficulty with balance and coordination, have difficulty walking or experience a marked change in gait, or have difficulty moving arms and legs.
Vision Problems
One of the nerves most commonly attacked in MS patients is the optic nerve, so there are a range of vision problems that develop in many women with MS. They may include full or partial vision loss, commonly in one eye. You may develop blurred vision, poor contrast or color vision. Patients may also experience pain with eye movement or experience involuntary eye movements as a frightening early sign of the disease. If you develop these symptoms, you should schedule an appointment as quickly as possible, because it means that your body has attacked the optic nerve, and vision damage is irreversible.
Chronic Fatigue
According to the MSAA, about 80 percent of patients with MS suffer from chronic fatigue, which can progress to become so severe that it interferes with their ability to function on a daily basis at home or at work. For an otherwise active and healthy woman, this may be the most prominent symptom of the disease, and one which may be confused with other illnesses, such as lupus.
Numbness or Pain
Another common early symptom for MS patients is numbness, tingling, or pain, which commonly occurs in the face, arms, legs, and torso. Because the disease attacks the nerves that send such signals to the brain, the sclerosis, or scarring, on the myelin or damage to nerve fibers can cause the body to send conflicting signals to and from the brain, or to halt those signals altogether, causing the most common symptom of MS -- numbness. Other patients experience burning sensation, or may develop chronic pain that is secondary to other complications from the disease, such as aches in the joints and legs or feet as a result of unsteady gait or difficulty walking.
Dizziness and/or Vertigo
MS patients often develop chronic dizziness, feeling off balance and lightheaded. Some MS patients may develop vertigo, which is a feeling that they or their surroundings are spinning, often triggered by a change in position, such as going from sitting to standing or standing quickly after bending forward, whether to pull weeds in a garden or retrieve an object from the floor.
Speech Difficulties
MS patients will often develop speech difficulties, change in speech quality, or have difficulty swallowing, as a result of MS lesions. Most commonly, patients will develop slurred speech, or their rate of speaking will decrease, partially due to cognitive difficulties which result from the disease. Vocal qualities will develop a breathless or raspy quality, or volume control will be diminished. Patients may also have difficulty chewing and swallowing food, as well as the body’s ability to move food through the esophagus and into the stomach.
Cognitive Changes
About half of MS patients will develop marked changes in cognition, which may range from a hindered ability to learn or remember new information to problems with attention or problem-solving skills.
Patients with MS may also develop psychological changes, both as a result of the damage to the areas of the brains that control emotion and as a result of stress from the disease. Clinical depression is diagnosed more commonly in MS patients than in both the general population and in patients with other chronic, disabling diseases. Patients may also experience bouts of uncontrollable laughing or crying.