Multiple sclerosis notably, and so far inexplicably, afflicts twice as many women as men. This chronic, unpredictable disease of the central nervous system (the brain, spinal cord and optic nerves) is thought to be an autoimmune disorder that turns a patient’s immune system against healthy tissue. Sometimes severely debilitating, MS can progress steadily, or it can go into periods of remission. Many patients experience a long, frustrating road to diagnosis, in part because MS symptoms (such as numbness, extreme fatigue, vision problems, dizziness, bladder and bowel dysfunction, and loss of balance and coordination) are so general that they can suggest other diseases.