epilepsy and birth control

[sparules]

I am epileptic with grand mal seizures. I have had them since I was 17 and why they started who knows. Maybe I needed to prove to myself that I am strong enough to overcome such odds. The doctors have no idea and I have been on every medication. My seizures occur mostly because of stress: during finals and midterms. Oh and of course during that lovely time of the month. I am curious if I control my stress levels and take away the time of the month(with birth control) can I be seizure free? Does anyone else out there have seizures most often around their period?

[Bernard]

Hi sparules, welcome to the forum.

A lot of women have seizures during their monthly menstrual cycle. They call it catamenial epilepsy. It's related to the changes in hormones.

[bunkers1]

i definatly had that problem, increase of seizures around that time, i was put on depo- provera, one of the most reliable forms of birth control when you are on any med (since most meds take down the reliability factor in orals) plus most times for most women you dont even get that time of the month. i am one of those anal-retentive (yes, i will admit it) goes off at anything, stressed out to the max people, so i needed to have one less stress in my life. depo will make you gain about 10-15 lbs.. but i think the trade off is worth it.

[mariaine22]

Hey,yes! same thing happens to me! my doc says its just because of the high hormone levels of estorgen during that time, so they decided to put me on Errin, a birth control pill made of mainly progesterone and also taking trilpetal to control the seizures, but im still getting them n gettin dizzy n tired but not as often so i guess you could say its kinda working. Good luck.