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Want to get pregnant while on Lamictal

Tue, 04/07/2009 - 16:27

So, I know everyone's different when it comes to seizures and medications; but I'm hoping to get some positive vibes. I am 28 years old and my husband and I want to start trying to have a baby in either October or November. A while ago my neurologist told me when I decide that I want to have a baby to let him know at least 6 months before we start trying. So I told him in February when we wanted to start. I'm on Keppra and Lamictal, but he wants me on just one medication. That being said, I chose to stay on Lamictal because I had really bad side affects with Keppra. So, I'm off Keppra in 2 weeks and he increased my dosage for Lamictal to 400 mg a day (I'm a little nervous with the transition but trying to stay positive). He said I should be fine being that I haven't had a seizure since Sept. 2006 and my seizures are controllable. He told me all the information that I needed to know about being pregnant while on Lamictal. Oh, and I am also taking Folic Acid. Although he told me everything I needed to know, I also want to get some feedback from women who are pregnant or were pregnant while being on Lamictal. Were your seizures controllable while on Lamictal before becoming pregnant? And were there any changes while being pregnant?

 I would love to hear some feedback, thanks!

Comments

Re: Want to get pregnant while on Lamictal

Submitted by laceyb on Mon, 2010-12-27 - 14:33
I am 26 years old and have been on 400mg of Lamictal and 300mg of Zonegran since im 13. I have a healthy 2 year old baby boy and recently found out Im 11 weeks pregnant. I was also very nervouse when I found out I was pregnant because I knew the side effects that could effect the baby but I worked closely with my neurologist and my lamictal being adjusted and everything worked out fine. Dont worry, just take care of yourself and go to your obgyn and neuro and youll be fine. 

Re: Want to get pregnant while on Lamictal

Submitted by lb34 on Thu, 2011-02-03 - 00:51
LBI am just following up to a comment i did 8/27 when i was still pregnant and the ultrasounds were all  normal. (i was still an uncontrolled E and on 4 anticonvulsants).  My baby boy is now 14 months, active and healthy and loves people and for the first time since i have had E I have gone more than 1 year without a Grand Mal....God is sooo good.

Re: Want to get pregnant while on Lamictal

Submitted by kattatstrophe on Sat, 2011-08-06 - 21:51

I have been in your situation when my husband & I discovered that we wanted to TTC about four months ago. When I finally brought it up with my doctor (after working up the courage) he took some time to look up some information & talked with me about my options. He also said that it's important to notify him about 6 months ahead of time so that we can properly configure the medication before we actively TTC & we discussed the different medications that could be used in an effort to be control seizures as well as support a healthy possible pregnacy.

What we found out after doing a lot of research (research is the key) is that the risks of Lamictal kind of depend on the woman & the type/severity of epilepsy but from what he said, the benefits of staying on it can outweigh the possible negative. When we first talked about it, it was about three months ago but he confidently found out some important information. After he researched it, he told me that one of the most common possible side effects is low birth weight & preclamsia as well as premature birth. Because of this he decided to add Diamox before we were actively TTC to try to introduce a new medication, mostly used to manage high blood pressure. His plan was to start me on it & when we began to fully, actively TTC, possibly switch to using it as the main medication. 

After we started it, I really felt no difference. In a way I didn't feel like it even was necessary to try it. However I never had enough guts to switch to it entirely because I have had such a good run with Lamotragine. Bottom line was that he basically suggested that the benefits to my health would outweigh the negatives that might be caused by the use of it while pregnant.

The most important thing is to remember that this was my experience & i experience a different set of seizure activity then you do. I have simple partial seizures as well as absence & complex partial seizures but never experiance convulsions. Even though they are horrible to go through, they are obviously not the most serious types of epilepsy so I think the best thing to do would be to talk to your gynocologist as much as you can while working with your neurologist. It is hard sometimes to get them to work together but after a few tries, I was able to get them on the same page. 

Hope that helps & good luck!! Let me know how it goes!

I have been in your situation when my husband & I discovered that we wanted to TTC about four months ago. When I finally brought it up with my doctor (after working up the courage) he took some time to look up some information & talked with me about my options. He also said that it's important to notify him about 6 months ahead of time so that we can properly configure the medication before we actively TTC & we discussed the different medications that could be used in an effort to be control seizures as well as support a healthy possible pregnacy.

What we found out after doing a lot of research (research is the key) is that the risks of Lamictal kind of depend on the woman & the type/severity of epilepsy but from what he said, the benefits of staying on it can outweigh the possible negative. When we first talked about it, it was about three months ago but he confidently found out some important information. After he researched it, he told me that one of the most common possible side effects is low birth weight & preclamsia as well as premature birth. Because of this he decided to add Diamox before we were actively TTC to try to introduce a new medication, mostly used to manage high blood pressure. His plan was to start me on it & when we began to fully, actively TTC, possibly switch to using it as the main medication. 

After we started it, I really felt no difference. In a way I didn't feel like it even was necessary to try it. However I never had enough guts to switch to it entirely because I have had such a good run with Lamotragine. Bottom line was that he basically suggested that the benefits to my health would outweigh the negatives that might be caused by the use of it while pregnant.

The most important thing is to remember that this was my experience & i experience a different set of seizure activity then you do. I have simple partial seizures as well as absence & complex partial seizures but never experiance convulsions. Even though they are horrible to go through, they are obviously not the most serious types of epilepsy so I think the best thing to do would be to talk to your gynocologist as much as you can while working with your neurologist. It is hard sometimes to get them to work together but after a few tries, I was able to get them on the same page. 

Hope that helps & good luck!! Let me know how it goes!

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