The most common symptoms of MS in women don’t vary much from those seen in men and there are both early and late signs of MS in women. This means they emerge at an early stage of the disease or wait until the MS has progressed. Early on, the most common signs include double vision or blurred eyesight, weak limbs, loss of balance, numbness or tingling of extremities. Some signs not commonly seen, but still able to present themselves early in the disease include; lack of coordination, difficulty thinking, slurred speech, or sudden paralysis.
The more Multiple Sclerosis progresses, the more signs and symptoms of MS in women there will be. Fatigue is common among MS patients, especially as the disease causes more damage. Sensitivity to heat is another symptom felt. In some cases, the person with MS needs to wear a cooling vest to lower the body temperature and prevent discomfort from the hot air surrounding them.
Mobility becomes more limited as MS progresses, which can be caused not only by lesions on the brain and spinal cord, but also due to spasticity. This debilitating symptom causes the muscles to spasm in arms and legs, thus preventing them to be used as freely as they were prior to MS.
Severe impaired thinking affects around 10 percent of the MS population. Daily tasks are often so difficult to carry out that these individuals need a caregiver to assist them. Dizziness and abnormal sensations are two additional symptoms people with Multiple Sclerosis experience at times.
How to Diagnose MS in Women
The largest group of women diagnosed with MS is pre-menopausal, which has caused researches to look into how hormones play a part in Multiple Sclerosis. The research hasn’t been extensive, but a couple of hypotheses have come up. One is that women diagnosed with MS tend to have lower levels of testosterone. Another is that progesterone and oestrogen play a role in MS in women, however, that role is yet to be known.
To diagnose MS in women, a series of tests need to be run to rule out various infections, viruses, and other illnesses with similar signs and symptoms. Blood is drawn and tested to rule out viral infections, cerebrospinal fluid is taken during a spinal tap to eliminate diseases which also cause the white blood cell count to rise, and an MRI scan is performed to look for active lesions. The symptoms of MS in women vary from person to person. Watching for the signs of MS in women and getting a diagnosis right away is the only way to get a handle on this disease before it begins to progress quickly.
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