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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 greenlizard on Thu, 2012-07-12 - 13:33
I guess your neuro doesn't read the literature. As some others have said, estrogen can provoke seizure activity, and progesterone can inhibit it, and most BC is estrogen-based.
My neuro does research on women and epilepsy and he told me this, and to take depoprovera because it is progestin-based. I never took the others, so I can't tell you any effects of those personally, but on depo I was totally fine.
If you want to look at the research, here are a few studies from PubMed:
http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/21134499
http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/21124696
http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/19587632
http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/18178110
http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/16766231
http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/21451944
I guess your neuro doesn't read the literature. As some others have said, estrogen can provoke seizure activity, and progesterone can inhibit it, and most BC is estrogen-based.
My neuro does research on women and epilepsy and he told me this, and to take depoprovera because it is progestin-based. I never took the others, so I can't tell you any effects of those personally, but on depo I was totally fine.
If you want to look at the research, here are a few studies from PubMed:
http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/21134499
http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/21124696
http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/19587632
http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/18178110
http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/16766231
http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/21451944