Gender & Epilepsy

[renee97]

It has been quite a while ago, probably well over a year, but I was a captive audience with a retired surgeon who essentially stated that hormones and seizures are related. While he did not come out and go further to say that women are more likely to have epilepsy then men, that was certainly the implication that he gave. Has there ever been any research or studies or numbers on this? Are women more susceptible to epilepsy and / or seizures then men? Are there any numbers to indicate that men who get it might "only" be getting it from previous generations? Just thought I would ask.
r97

 

[kelso54]

epiepsy & gender

everything i have seen or read says epilepsy shows no prejudicious; gender, race, national origin. hormones and hormonal changes effect seizure conditions; but are not the underlying cause.

 

[dfwtexas]

I did read something not too long ago that stated women are more likely to have petit mals, but it did not say why.
I know I had hysteromcy at age 27 and haven't been on hormones in years and I didn't develop it until age 47. My neuro thinks my is related to either one of the multiple bacteria infections I had as a result of trauma or the IV meds that I was on 24/7 for two years.

 

[Dutch mom]

boys are more likely to get childhood E. syndromes

Most childhood epilepsy syndromes (Infantile Spasms, Lennox Gastaut Syndrome, SMEI/Dravet syndrome, MAE/Doose syndrome, Othahara syndome, ESES, Landau Kleffner syndrome) -both inherited and not inherited- occur more in boys than in girls.
Aicardi syndrome is a typical girl-syndrome, boys with Aicardi are very rare. Same with Rett syndrome witch often causes E. too.

http://jnnp.bmj.com/cgi/content/abstract/75/5/773
Medial temporal lobe epilepsy (MTLE) occurs more frequently in men than in women.

http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/15634622
About choosing drugs and gender.

 

[epileric]

I did read something not too long ago that stated women are more likely to have petit mals, but it did not say why.

My understanding is that there is no scientific proof that one gender would be more likely to have E than another. However, statistically there are more women with E than men.

 

[RobinN]

I wish there were studies as to which areas of the world have more cases.