Chris, 32, from the Lake District, was diagnosed with relapsing remitting multiple sclerosis in 2014, at the same time as starting hormone treatment and a surgical gender transition.
I was diagnosed with relapsing remitting MS in 2014 and started my fourth disease modifying treatment with Ocrevus in December 2020. I am also extremely proud to identify as part of the LGBTQ+ community as transgender. I was assigned female at birth but all my life and growing up, I always felt at odds with my gender. I never felt all that comfortable being seen as a girl and femininity definitely did not come naturally to me. Throughout school I knew something felt different, though I couldn’t quite put my finger on what these uncomfortable feelings were, nor did I feel I had the words or examples to explain what I was going through. It wasn’t until I was in my first year at university in Liverpool back in 2008, where my whole world opened up and I was finally able to start exploring my gender identity. Since then, I have transitioned from female to male both socially through changing my pronouns to he/him/his and legally changing my name. I have also medically transitioned through testosterone hormone therapy and undergone gender reassignment surgery.
Being told you have MS is life changing news for anyone to receive, unfortunately for me it also came at the exact same time as I was beginning my hormone treatment.
My MS diagnosis came after I experienced an attack of bizarre limb coordination issues, numbness in my arms and legs, unexplainable fatigue and brain fog, word finding difficulties and information processing slowness. It was in the winter of 2013 that Neurologists initially told me I had Clinically Isolated Syndrome and the hope was that what I had experienced was a one-off case. However, over the course of a year and with the re-emergence of the same troubling symptoms, I went back for more tests and MRIs. I was finally given my official RRMS diagnosis which came as quite a shock.
Being told you have MS is life changing news for anyone to receive, unfortunately for me it also came at the exact same time as I was beginning my hormone treatment with testosterone and the start of my surgical gender transition - another life changing experience. I found myself having to learn to cope with a lot of different emotions all at once.
I had always imagined starting my physical transition would signify a huge moment in my life. Getting to this point in my transition had been difficult, I had struggled for years with trying to come to terms with my gender identity. I was finally going to start feeling comfortable in my own skin. What I had always felt on the inside was going to start looking back at me in the mirror and I would be able to start living a more authentic life.
Receiving the news that I had MS felt like a cruel blow that snatched away the joyful shine from a moment in my life that I had finally reached in my gender transition. It didn’t feel fair, but I knew that I was not so easily knocked down!
Coming to terms and living with MS has been hard but I do believe very much that learning to navigate life as a trans person has given me a unique experience in learning to cope mentally with having MS. I feel as though it has given me the mental resilience that I needed to help manage the stresses and difficulties that I’ve found MS can bring. I also find being part of a community has proven to be a lifeline, especially when times feel hard. Whether that is the LGBTQ+ or the MS community (or in my case both), knowing there are other people out there going through the same things that you may be going through can bring a sense of not being alone while providing much needed support. Being transgender and having MS have equally thrown huge curve balls into my life but I feel they have also helped me to learn what I am capable of achieving as a person and that being trans or having MS won’t stop me from living a fulfilling life.
