[Shaun]

Following a stroke, Chris Birch's personality and sexuality altered dramatically. Now he is trying to rediscover who he is and why these changes may have happened.

"It's like looking at somebody else, but with my face only younger, and in all fairness, if I met myself I'd probably carry on walking."

Looking at past pictures of himself, 27-year-old Chris Birch struggles to remember or identify with his old self. He used to be a 19-stone, beer-swilling, party-loving rugby fan from the Welsh valleys, the life and soul of a party. He worked in a bank and loved sport and motorbikes.

After a freak accident in 2011, he says he underwent a big change to his personality. He believes that he has gone from being straight to gay.

"I was doing a forward roll down a grass bank one day and cut off the blood supply to my brain which caused a stroke to happen. It was from there, while I was recovering, that I realised I'd changed," says Birch, from Caerphilly.

"The Chris I knew had gone and a new Chris sort of came along. I came to the realisation that the stroke had turned me gay."

A stroke occurs when the blood, and therefore, oxygen supply to the brain is disrupted. Without oxygen, any part of the brain can be destroyed as brain cells die, leaving the brain to make new connections, which can affect how a person thinks, moves or feels.

Stroke patients have a 40% chance of suffering another stroke and Birch takes medication to prevent any such reoccurrence. He still has regular brain scans and cannot remember much of his life before the accident. He has also noticed physical changes to his body, for instance when he is tired, his left eye droops.

When Birch's story hit the headlines last year it sparked a media frenzy and the story went viral. However, some - including media organisations and those close to Birch - questioned whether a stroke could alter a person's sexual orientation.

There are few known cases of a stroke turning a straight person gay, and major personality changes in stroke sufferers are rare. Even Jak Powell, Birch's fiance, believes his partner may always have been gay.

"I've still got the same opinion that it was just something that was always there," says Powell.

"People grow up not knowing they are gay and have families and then they realise they are gay, but they don't have a stroke to realise that."

Yet Birch disagrees and is convinced that, neurologically, it was the stroke that altered his sense of self. The moment he realised his feelings towards men had changed was a scary period in his life.

"It was a sort of lonely time. It was a time I was afraid to tell anybody because that wasn't who I used to be, so it shouldn't be who I am now," he says.

"You're afraid to tell people, you're afraid to have that conversation or even talk about the possibility that I have even changed in some way, and I suppose I dealt with it by moving out of my family home by myself and having to realise who I was all over again."

A change in sexual orientation in a stroke sufferer is a controversial issue that can divide scientific opinion.

Dr Qazi Rahman of Queen Mary, University of London, an expert in human sexual orientation, has researched the neurological differences between gay and straight men and women.

He has tested hundreds of lesbian, gay and straight volunteers and discovered certain key patterns which reveal if a person might have been born gay or straight.

Rahman says the brains of gay men could be organised differently to those of straight men.

He invited Birch, who has swapped banking for hairdressing, to undergo the computer-based tests to see if he may, indeed, have been born gay. On half of the tests, Birch performed in the "expected direction" for a gay man, and for the other half was within the range of a straight man.

"The bulk of the evidence in the biological sciences of genetics and psychology and neuroscience suggest that sexuality is something you are born with and it develops later on through life," says Rahman.

"Sometimes it takes something like a neurological insult - which is what a stroke is - to make you reassess those feelings, perhaps that are lying dormant, and bring them into the front of your mind and it is possible that is what has happened with [Birch]."

Yet consultant neuro-psychiatrist Dr Sudad Jawad has worked with young people who have had strokes and has come across a similar case in his practice of a man whose sexuality changed from homosexual to heterosexual.

"Just like a stroke can change you as a person, your behaviour, your personality, the way you think, why not sexual orientation, it is part of the personality of the individual," says Jawad.

Birch's case brings to mind other examples of those whose personality has radically altered after a change in their medical history.

Tommy McHugh suffered a stroke in 2001 which unlocked his creative side. He used to be a builder and is now an artist, sculptor and writes poetry.

However before the stroke, McHugh had no interest in art apart from the tattoos on his arms.

In 2008, Cheryl Johnson claimed her personality and taste in literature had changed after a kidney transplant. She swapped popular novels for high-brow books by Dostoevsky.

Debbie McCann, a grandmother from Glasgow, suffered a stroke in 2011 and began speaking with an Italian accent, although she had never been to Italy.

One of the first recorded instances of a personality change after a head injury dates back to 1848, with the case of Phineas Gage. While working as a railroad construction foreman, his head was pierced by an iron bar propelled by an explosion. He survived the accident but suffered behavioural changes and was reported to have permanently lost his inhibitions.

Although science may never be able to reveal what happened after Birch's accident and the lasting effect of the stroke, he is continuing to rediscover himself and move on with his new life.

He has put away previous pictures of himself - and with them the "old Chris".

"I'm convinced more than ever looking at these photos that the stroke did turn me gay, because there is no way that I was gay before. I have photos as proof and I have friends as proof and now I have memories as proof."

"I'm happier now than I ever have been, why would I want to change?"

Stroke statistics

Every five minutes someone in the UK has a stroke
Around a third of those who have suffered a stroke will recover
A third of stroke sufferers are left disabled or need further rehabilitation
And a third of stroke patients are likely to die within the first 10 days
Medical help should be sought as soon as a stroke is suspected to increase the chance of recovery

BBC Health: Learn more about strokes

There's a documentary about him on BBC3 tonight at 9.

[Fetch The Bolt Cutters]

same

[Mystic Mock]

This guy must be joking surely?

[Patrick]

'cus there was no way that I was gay before! I can't be, I have friends as proof, and photos!'

He sounds like one of those Redneck Americans.

[joeysteele]

Watching the programme,his story falls flat.

Depends who he stroked.

[Ammi]

..it's actually quite fascinating..I've heard about people suddenly being able to speak another language after something like this

[Fetch The Bolt Cutters]

Originally Posted by Ammi

..it's actually quite fascinating..I've heard about people suddenly being able to speak another language after something like this

Youtube video

amazing

[Ammi]

..yes that's it Scott..the brain is an amazing thing..so much that is never unlocked

[Niamh.]

I don't see why it couldn't be possible, everything we are and what we like is decided by our brain, so a trauma to the brain could change what he likes and the way he thinks imo

[Ammi]

Originally Posted by Niamh.

I don't see why it couldn't be possible, everything we are and what we like is decided by our brain, so a trauma to the brain could change what he likes and the way he thinks imo

..yes that's exactly right..we only use a small part of our brain..and I guess if one part is traumatised and lays 'dormant'..another part can compensate for that..there are so many 'brain stories' which have involved complete personality changes..I think anything is possible

Originally Posted by Ammi

..yes that's exactly right..we only use a small part of our brain..and I guess if one part is traumatised and lays 'dormant'..another part can compensate for that..there are so many 'brain stories' which have involved complete personality changes..I think anything is possible

It's a popular myth that we don't use a lot of our brain. We do.

[Ammi]

Originally Posted by Jesus.H.Christ

It's a popular myth that we don't use a lot of our brain. We do.

..speak for yourself..mines been resting for a good long while now

Originally Posted by Ammi

..speak for yourself..mines been resting for a good long while now

Sorry. I should remember that no one likes a show off

[Mystic Mock]

Originally Posted by Ammi

..speak for yourself..mines been resting for a good long while now

[Mystic Mock]

Originally Posted by Niamh.

I don't see why it couldn't be possible, everything we are and what we like is decided by our brain, so a trauma to the brain could change what he likes and the way he thinks imo

To me it sounds like this guy was gay before the stroke but had a homophobic family to deal with, but now that his had a stroke his using it as an excuse to say it turned him gay which is sick imo.

[joeysteele]

Originally Posted by jedward fever

To me it sounds like this guy was gay before the stroke but had a homophobic family to deal with, but now that his had a stroke his using it as an excuse to say it turned him gay which is sick imo.

They were my thoughts halfway through the programme and in the main still are, however, I can take on board some points,very strong ones too, Ammi and Niamh made as to complete changes of personality after a stroke or other trauma to the Brain.

Particularly the change in the guy who started painting, we don't use all our minds and part of it, possibly the most creative part of it gets brushed aside as we concentrate our energies on more simple things.
After the traauma of a stroke and the shutdown of part of our usual elements of concentration,it could be then unaffected stronger regions of the Brain get used and we find things we can do that we never believed we could before, like that guy painting all over the place.

My problem with the Chris guy, was that he seemed desperate to be assured he was straight before the stroke,yet says he is happy as he is now with a boyfriend too.
A bit too much emphasis on that he wasn't gay before,I didn't get why it bothered him so much and as for looking at photographs and saying no one who looked at those past photos could have thought him gay, well how on earth, with no other clearer features and actions, do you look at people and say they are or they are not.

By the end of the programme,I felt he may have a point to it,that the stroke may have affected his emotions possibly but I don't think I was totally convinced and like you jf, thought there was more to it especially from his past.

Was he dressed in arseless leather chaps, and have a massive handlebar moustache, in his pre-stroke photo's?