Selma Blair photographed while attending the Hamptons International Film Festival.Photo: Chloe Gifkins
Selma Blairis opening up about the gender bias she says she experienced prior to being diagnosed with multiple sclerosis.
The 51-year-old actress — who wasdiagnosedwith the autoimmune disease in 2018 and has been inremissionsince 2021 — recently appeared on“Meet the Press”and spoke to moderator Kristen Welker about her MS journey.
“I just cried,” Blair remembered of her reaction at that moment. “I had no capability to process. ‘What am I supposed to do with this information?’ I knew the pain was real. I thought it was. But I did start to convince myself, ‘You’re overly sensitive. There’s nothing wrong with you. Get it together, you lazy, lazy whatever.’ ”
Blair said she has “so much medical trauma” now because of the way she was treated early on, sharing that she was dealing with symptoms since her childhood but was a victim of gender bias in healthcare.
“It was a gender bias, a lot of it, because there would be a boy in my grade that would go in for the exact same chronic headache and fever, and he is in surgery and an MRI within the week,” she explained. “I was never given an MRI even though I always had headaches and fevers and balance [problems]. But they just said, ‘Oh, just dramatic.’ ”
Selma Blair posing for a photograph at an ‘Introducing, Selma Blair’ event.Getty
Because her symptoms were brushed off for years, Blair said getting diagnosed with MS in 2018 gave her a sense of relief.
“I was relieved I finally had something that could be understood and treated,” she said on the show.
The actress also shared a message to medical professionals who are dealing with patients coming in for chronic symptoms.
“I really wish they would listen,” she said, adding that “nothing was taken seriously.”
“I want doctors to listen, keep things in mind. And why so afraid of an MRI on a woman?” she added
Today, Blair said she’s in still in remission, “which is a safe place to be.”
“I’m doing better every day,” she said.
Selma Blair photographed in New York City on Nov. 7, 2023.Dimitrios Kambouris/Getty Images
Dimitrios Kambouris/Getty Images
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Last month, Blair admitted that she’s been feeling “great” despite some of the challenges she still faces while living with MS.
“Everything’s great. I am still in remission,” Blair told PEOPLE. “I do have things that will probably always be with me, dystonia and things that come and go that are a real phenomenon. But neurology is an interesting thing and it’s fascinating to me.”
“I do get tired,” Blair adds. “That’s the thing. It is hard. So we do have to remember to build in a rest day…because if mama goes down then we’re down for a minute. But when I’m up, I’m doing it and I’m happy. I’m really happy.”
source: people.com
