Did a stroke really turn a straight man gay?
Chris Birch, a banker and rugby enthusiast, was all set to marry his girlfriend. But after a freak accident, he suddenly found himself attracted to men

Chris Birch was a macho, heterosexual, rugby-loving jock who was engaged to his girlfriend. Then one day, he woke up in a hospital, and the 26-year-old from South Wales found that he had undergone a radical change. "I was definitely gay," he says. A guide to this strange case:
What happened?
Birch was doing backflips in front of his buddies. While trying to impress them, "he fell down a grass bank," says Britain's Daily Mail, "breaking his neck and suffering a stroke." Birch was rushed to the hospital and spent several days in a coma, surrounded by his concerned fiancée and family.
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And he woke up sexually attracted to men?
So he says. While watching TV during the recovery process, Birch says he found himself drawn to a handsome actor on screen. "I felt my stomach flutter, and the same feelings I used to have for pretty girls came across me," he says. "I had never felt like that about a man, but I knew immediately what the feeling was."
Is this really possible?
This isn't the first time someone has woken up after a stroke to discover something radically different about themselves. Two years ago, a British man woke after a stroke to find himself a very capable painter, says the Daily Mail, despite "no previous evidence of the skill." To help make sense of his situation, Birch sought out the help of a neurologist, who explained that the stroke likely played a role in "opening up" a part of his brain he was previously unaware of, says Jonathan Higbee at Instinct.
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So what is Birch doing now?
He stopped hanging out with his old friends, broke up with his fiancée, adopted a healthier lifestyle, and quit his job as a banker. "Suddenly, I hated everything about my old life," he says. "I didn't get on with my friends, hated sport, and found my job boring." He now works as a hairdresser and lives with his 19-year-old boyfriend.
Sources: Daily Mail, Huffington Post, Instinct
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