Christina Applegate reveals multiple sclerosis diagnosis: 'It's been a tough road'

MS stands for multiple sclerosis. According to Mayo Clinic, with MS "the immune system attacks the protective sheath (myelin) that covers nerve fibers and causes communication problems between your brain and the rest of your body. Eventually, the disease can cause permanent damage or deterioration of the nerves."

Applegate previously shared her "early form of breast cancer" diagnosis in 2008, which led to a double mastectomy and the revelation that she was a carrier of the BRCA1 gene mutation. She eventually underwent surgery to remove her ovaries and fallopian tubes as an additional preventative measure in late 2017.

The Emmy winner incorporated her personal history into Dead to Me, the Netflix comedic crime drama created by Liz Feldman and starring Applegate, Linda Cardellini and James Marsden.

The first season hit the streamer in May 2019. The fourth episode features Jen (Applegate) confiding in Judy (Cardellini) that she had a preventative double mastectomy despite not having breast cancer because she is a BRCA1 gene carrier. "I didn't want my kids to lose their mom like I did," she explains.

"Her having a mastectomy was something I brought to Liz in the middle of filming," Applegate told The Hollywood Reporter around the first season premiere. "I was trying to figure out this core pain that she has, and I thought we never really see women in television or in film really being [shown] having had this surgery. Jen did not have cancer, she did it prophylactically, but the surgery itself and the aftermath of that is hard emotionally and physically. I wanted to be honest about it."

"I think after I had cancer and I talked about it out there in the world, I was trying to be a champion for myself, you know, almost like, lying to myself about the great thing about it," the Married... with Children and Samantha Who? alumnus continued. "I was trying to be positive, and that was how I was dealing with it and surviving. But when I was just sitting there with myself, it's an incredibly painful thing to go through. It's an amputation of a part of you. It's part of being a woman, and I wanted to be honest. So I brought it to Liz and she was like, 'OK, let me see how we can weave this in.' I think she did it beautifully."

Dead to Me was renewed for its third and final season in early June 2020.

Applegate shares her 10-year-old daughter, Sadie, with her husband, Martyn LeNoble.