Knowing what stage of MS you're in involves a combination of medical assessments and your own symptom tracking. It's not always a clear-cut answer, but there are several ways doctors figure this out.
Doctors typically use these tools to determine your stage:
- MRI scans – These check for new or growing lesions in the brain Show Full Answer
Knowing what stage of MS you're in involves a combination of medical assessments and your own symptom tracking. It's not always a clear-cut answer, but there are several ways doctors figure this out.
Doctors typically use these tools to determine your stage:
- MRI scans – These check for new or growing lesions in the brain and spinal cord
- Relapse frequency – How often flare-ups occur and how well you recover from them
- EDSS score – A disability scale from 0 to 10 that tracks things like weakness, vision, speech, and bladder/bowel function
- Neurological exams – Including physical tests like a 25-foot walk test MS progression is generally broken into these phases:
- Subclinical phase – Some inflammation may exist before any symptoms appear
- High-risk phase – Symptoms begin to show up
- Relapsing-remitting phase – Cycles of flare-ups followed by periods of remission
- Progressive phase – Flare-ups last longer than remissions, though not everyone reaches this stage Keeping a symptom journal — even just rating how you feel on a scale of 1 to 10 regularly — can be surprisingly helpful. It gives your neurologist a clearer picture of how things are changing over time.
The most important step is staying in close contact with your healthcare team and keeping up with regular appointments and testing.
October 4
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