The brave actress hasn't had it easy

Christina Applegate recently delivered a challenging update on her MS health diagnosis, but sadly it's by far the first time she's been forced to face a crisis when it comes to her body. 

The mom-of-one, was told she had breast cancer at the age of 36 and after a lumpectomy, she was told further devastating news, that she had the BRCA1 genetic mutation (a gene which is associated with an increased risk of both breast and ovarian cancer).

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Christina, 51, made the dramatic decision to have a bilateral mastectomy. "It came on really fast. It was one of those things that I woke up and it felt so right," she told .

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"It just seemed like, 'I don't want to have to deal with this again. I don't want to keep putting that stuff in my body. I just want to be done with this.' and I was just going to let them go."

It was an incredibly emotional process, but not one she was completely foreign to as her own mother had undergone the procedure in the 70s. 

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MORE: Netflix star Christina Applegate shocks fans with devastating health update

However, those visions only made Christina more nervous as she admitted that during her mom's surgery, "they didn't do a very good job back then". 

Christina now suffers from MS

None-the-less, the Dead to Meactress knew what she wanted to do, and she didn't want to wait. 

"It can be very painful," she revealed to the news network. "It's also a part of you that's gone, so you go through a grieving process and a mourning process."

MORE: Christina Applegate reveals impact MS diagnosis has had on her career

To begin with, she said she would cry every day but gradually she used what she had been through to help others. 

Christina was diagnosed with breast cancer at the age of 36

"This is my opportunity now to go out and fight as hard as I can for early detection," she's said. 

Now, Christina is opening up about her struggles with multiple sclerosis, admitting she wished she'd paid more attention to the symptoms when they began.

Before her MS news in 2021, Christina admitted that she began experiencing symptoms years before – such as numbness and a tingling sensation in her limbs – but was unaware of the connection to the disease.

"I wish I had paid attention," she said during an interview with the . "But who was I to know?" 

Once diagnosed, Christina admitted: "There was the sense of, 'Well, let's get her some medicine so she can get better.' And there is no better. But it was good for me. I needed to process the loss of my life, my loss of that part of me."

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