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Can seizures be caused by birth control?
Fri, 02/22/2008 - 17:02Now, I know some of you may think this is strange, but here goes:
I'm 21 and have had only 2 seizures in my life. One in April of last year and the other in August. Both were after being on birth control (tri-cyclen lo, to be exact) for 3 months. I stopped taking my birth control after my seizure in April, but I didn't really think anything of it. I wasn't seeing anyone at the time so I just didn't really want it in my system. I started taking my birth control again in June after I met a new guy. After I had the seizure in August (late August) I started to think maybe it was caused by my birth control. The neurologist that was assigned to me said that it was entirely 100% impossible, but my family physician told me there was always a chance.
I have been completely off my birth control since that last seizure and have not been taking any medications either. I feel a lot healthier and I haven't had a single problem since then, but the neurologist still will not listen to my input about why I think this happened.
I sat down with one of my girl friends that also has epilepsy and told her what was going on. She told me that the same thing happened to her when she started taking the pill but that none of the neurologists here believed her. She went to a husband and wife team in Quebec (way far away) and they told her that it was entirely possible that it was her birth control that caused it.
Anyways, has this happened to anyone else?
Re: Can seizures be caused by birth control?
Submitted by alexus on Thu, 2009-01-29 - 11:32
When I was 16, I was put onto Ortho- lo because of irregularity in my cycles. 3 months later, I became very ill, only to be diagnosed with having petit-mal epilepsy 7 months later. My mother and I asked the doctors whether the pill could have had an impact on this because I was a healthy teenager and nothing was adding up. One of my doctors told us that this could have increased the seizure activity, but it didn't start them. They speculated that I had been having staring spells my entire life and finally the stress of junior year finals pushed my body over the edge. Yet even now in college, my OBGYN tries to put me onto birth control. It makes me sicker every time. Something doesn't add up, and we've tried a variety of them, as well as all of the cocktails of seizure medications possible. Therefore, I'm done until after college and don't have to stress even more. There's so many factors that play in to what can cause a seizure, as I've learned the hard way (stress, cycles, diet, exercise, SLEEP- the biggest one). But we honestly think, as do some of my doctors, that the trigger was the BC pill. I hope this helps!
When I was 16, I was put onto Ortho- lo because of irregularity in my cycles. 3 months later, I became very ill, only to be diagnosed with having petit-mal epilepsy 7 months later. My mother and I asked the doctors whether the pill could have had an impact on this because I was a healthy teenager and nothing was adding up. One of my doctors told us that this could have increased the seizure activity, but it didn't start them. They speculated that I had been having staring spells my entire life and finally the stress of junior year finals pushed my body over the edge. Yet even now in college, my OBGYN tries to put me onto birth control. It makes me sicker every time. Something doesn't add up, and we've tried a variety of them, as well as all of the cocktails of seizure medications possible. Therefore, I'm done until after college and don't have to stress even more. There's so many factors that play in to what can cause a seizure, as I've learned the hard way (stress, cycles, diet, exercise, SLEEP- the biggest one). But we honestly think, as do some of my doctors, that the trigger was the BC pill. I hope this helps!