For women, the hormones that start to be produced at puberty (and which are no longer made in the body after menopause) can affect seizures. Likewise, seizures and seizure medicines can affect female hormones.

Seeing a neurologist or epilepsy specialist can be helpful to evaluate these relationships, particularly for women who are old enough to become pregnant. Be sure to talk with your doctor about which seizure medicine is best for you to take if you become pregnant.

Women with epilepsy who plan to become pregnant should take a folic acid supplement before conceiving, and the dosage should be at least 400 micrograms each day. Your doctor can tell you if you need a higher dose and how long you should continue to take the supplement once you become pregnant.

If you are pregnant, you should be seeing both a neurologist and an obstetrician with experience in high risk pregnancy to be sure that all the issues related to the effects of seizures and seizure medicines on the pregnancy are addressed.

If you take birth control pills, your doctor needs to know which epilepsy medication you are taking. Some epilepsy medications interact with birth control pills, so you may need a higher birth control pill dose to make sure you do not get pregnant. Your doctor may need to increase the dose of your birth control pill, see if you would prefer to change your birth control method to one that won’t be affected by your seizure medicine, or change your epilepsy medication to one that won’t affect oral contraceptives.

A physician’s discussion checklist for women with epilepsy can be found at professionals.epilepsy.com/page/women_checklist.html. This checklist shows many other topics pertaining to women and epilepsy that you should talk to your doctor about when appropriate.

For more information:

• Physician’s Discussion Checklist for Women with Epilepsy
• Epilepsy and Pregnancy
• Information for Women

Topic Editor: Mary Jo V. Pugh, PhD, RN and Steven C. Schachter, MD.
Last Reviewed: 3/25/08

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