Epilepsy is a common neurological disorder characterized by recurrent, unprovoked seizures. The seizures are transient signs or symptoms of the activity abnormal and excessive neuronal brain. A large proportion of people worldwide suffer from epilepsy, and usually occurs in young children or the elderly. This disease usually controlled, but not totally cured with medicine. Surgery may be an option, but not all cases. Epilepsy syndrome will not occur lifetime, some forms are limited only to the early childhood of the person concerned. This disease should not be understood as a single disorder but rather as a group syndromes that have different symptoms but all involving the brain's electrical activity.
Epilepsy and Hormones for Women
Women with Epilepsy is a special case and deserves some consideration because of the relationship between female sex hormones, estrogen and progesterone and seizures. There are some women who have seizures fluctuating due to differences in the amount of hormone in the body. Significant Sometimes a woman's life when hormonal changes are observed during puberty, during pregnancy, and during the stages of menopause.
Estrogen and progesterone regulate the menstrual cycle and prepare the woman's body for reproduction. Estrogen can excite the brain's electrical activity and increase the risk of seizures, while progesterone inhibits electrical activity and reduces the risk of seizure. The two can be balanced for most times, but when an imbalance occurs more progesterone, estrogen, women with epilepsy have a higher risk of seizure.
Epileptic Women and Pregnancy
There are some things important that an epileptic must know first before using any birth control pills and pregnancy planning. Birth control pills are safe for women with epilepsy, but there are some conditions under which the use of birth control pills are risky because they can make medications less effective when anticonvulsants are also taken. Anticonvulsant drugs may increase the risk of birth defects. There are many seizure medications and drugs that can be used as birth control and hormonal pills with no harmful effects on motherhood. These drugs are:
1). A group of anti-seizure medications known as "liver enzyme-inducing" drugs. This increases the speed at which the liver breaks down you get contraceptive hormones birth control. This means that birth control medication will leave your body faster. Drug-induced liver enzymes include oxcarbazepine (Trileptal) carbamazepine (Carbatrol, Tegretrol), phenytoin (Dilantin), phenobarbital (Luminal), primidone (Mysoline) and topiramate (Topamax). If you are taking one of these medications can make your hormonal birth control less effective.
2). Two drugs, felbamate (Felbatol) and valproate (Depakote), may even increase the hormonal levels. If you are in one of these medicines, your doctor may need to adjust the dose of your birth control so you do not have too much of contraceptives in your body.
3). Finally, there are "neutral" drugs that have no effect on the breakdown of the hormone. Lamotrigine (Lamictal) gabapentin (Neurontin), levetiracetam (Keppra), clobazam, clonazepam, ethosuximide, Lyrica, sodium valproate, Zonegran, and tiagabine (Gabitril) will not interfere with their control birth.
Woman’s Health- PMS, Hormone Imbalances, Menstruation, PCOS, Menopause, Ep128