Selma Blair‘s journey with multiple sclerosis has taken many twists and turns, from the struggle of getting her diagnosis to her decision to challenge herself on Dancing With the Stars and, now, to entering remission. One obstacle the actress hasn’t spoken about in detail, until now: the gender bias she faced from the medical system along the way.
In a new interview on Meet the Press, Blair recalled how her symptoms were dismissed and how she felt doctors were “really just not seeing me,” leading her to experience what she calls medical trauma.
“It was a gender bias, a lot of it,” Blair explained. She remembered never getting an MRI, despite experiencing symptoms like headaches, fever, and balance issues, but “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.”
In her 2022 memoir Mean Baby, Blair wrote about how one doctor “went so far as to tell me I might feel better if I had a boyfriend,” per an excerpt from The Guardian. In response, she said in the Meet the Press interview, “I just cried.” The Cruel Intentions star explained, “I had no capability to process. ‘What am I supposed to do with this information?’ I knew the pain was real… But I did start to convince myself, ‘You’re overly sensitive. There’s nothing wrong with you.'”
As part of this gender-specific medical gaslighting, Blair remembers being told she was “just dramatic,” and that, when she was young, she would visit “all older male doctors, who probably did not know the intricacies of a girl and that everything does not need to be blamed on menstruation.”
It’s a concerning experience, especially because studies have found MS is more prevalent in women than men. While symptoms can vary widely, they sometimes “can be disguised as emotional things,” Blair says, such as mood disturbances or fatigue, per Mayo Clinic.
For Blair, it manifests in a particular way. “I have prefrontal damage that would cause hysterical crying and laughing,” Blair said in the interview, explaining that she might wake up from sleep “laughing hysterically or sobbing,” or be “moody” around others.
By tirelessly advocating for herself, Blair has been able to find effective treatments and ways to manage her own symptoms, though she’s aware that many people with MS and other chronic illnesses don’t have the same resources. Blair is now in remission from MS and though she says she’s in pain “every day,” she also has “a huge appreciation for life and a tremendous appreciation for the helpers in the world,” she said. “That has given me a buoyancy inside.”
Before you go, read about more celebs who’ve opened up about facing rare or chronic illness:
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