Keppra and Birth Control

Welcome to the Coping With Epilepsy Forums

Welcome to the Coping With Epilepsy forums - a peer support community for folks dealing (directly or indirectly) with seizure disorders. You can visit the forum page to see the list of forum nodes (categories/rooms) for topics.

Please have a look around and if you like what you see, please consider registering an account and joining the discussions. When you register an account and log in, you may enjoy additional benefits including no ads, access to members only (ie. private) forum nodes and more. Registering an account is free - you have nothing to lose!

Mnm8405

Mnm8405

New
Messages
33
Reaction score
0
Points
0
Hello everyone! After a visit with my gp she suggested that taking Keppra requires me to be careful about pregnancy and make sure that it is planned... which led to a birth control conversation. I'm going back on the 27th and I'd like to be able to tell her what birth control I would like to be on... any suggestions?
 
I take depo provara, the shot. With this I don't have a peirod. I don't know if this form of birth control has affected my seizures any because I was on it before I had epilepsy and kept taking it after I was diagnosed. I also take kepra.

I am having a hysterectomy at the end of the month. I want to stop taking birthcontrol and I know for sure I don't want to get pregnant, if I were to I'd probably have to stop taking alot of my meds and even being on some I don't know if it would have any affect on the baby or not.
 
I have an IUD -- that way I don't have to worry about any potential interactions with my meds.
 
Thanks Everyone! I'm worried about the interactions, I was really hoping to go on the Nuva Ring.. lol with my bad memory and all it will be one less thing to worry about! After reading the interactions that wont be possible. Looks like the only real options are normal pills or an IUD.. Def going to need some input from my doc :)
 
I am on Keppra 1500mgs 2x a day and Toppamax 100mgs 1x and 150mgs 1x a day and I am on NuvaRing since July and no problems. Had to use back up of course the fist month but has worked out well for me and and the husband. We have found that for me I was actually having a problem with a low drive due to the toppamax and this seems to have corrected it somewhat. I don't know if this is due to the localization of the hormones or what. With my T/C's it seems to have lessened the severity of them I snap right out of it (no tounge biting,little disorintiotation, did not go into status) as well the last one i had in September was way less severve. We think this was due to this combo of drugs since this was the first seizure I had since this combo of drugs was in effect. Last set of seizures was in May. Maybe this will work for you as well. Hope this helps.

Tina
 
oh and by the way the Nuvaring website, the keppra website , and the toppamx website all say the same thing that there will be interactions with the drugs but when i spoke to my phamicist, and both of my doctors the nuerologist and my GP who is also my gynocologist she looked it up and said those were really my safest option since I did not want an IUD and my husband did want a Vasectemomey and I did not want the Depo shot every 3 months.

Tina
 
My neurologist actually pulled me off of my birth control (only reason I take it is to help prevent cysts). Estrogen and synthetic estrogens can lower your seizure threshold. My recommendation (for you and for me when I go to the ob/gyn next month) is if you need it, progesterone only. There are pills, shots, and IUD's. I had be on Lo Loestrin (Lo Estrin 24's version of orthotri-cyclin-lo) the estrogen for that in me while on topamax for migraines was still too high for my system, and tada here I am (took a seizure driving and had an accident). But if you feel like you MUST go on something, I would remember the progesterone only ones. Keppra is a category C medication in pregnancy (unknown if it does harm to the wee one). Which is something to keep in mind also, could be a lot worse.
 
be careful with the IUD in the last month, i've had 3-4 friends who've had their IUD slip and require major surgery to recover it.
 
Yikes! I've had my IUD for a decade with no worries.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top Bottom