Epilepsy treatment has come a long way since the nineteenth century, when women with seizures often underwent hysterectomies or ovariectomies. The logic was that by eliminating the menstrual cycle-which was linked with a higher seizure frequency at certain times-seizures would be eliminated as well. The strategy didn't work; in fact, it only made women less likely to consult with physicians.
Fast-forward a couple of hundred years, and things couldn't be more different. The management of epilepsy is far more sophisticated, and our knowledge of the condition is expanding at a rate that is astounding, even to those within the neurology community.
When Martha Morrell, M.D., first became an epileptologist, she noticed that many of her female patients had concerns about how having epilepsy might affect things like the ability to conceive a child. There wasn't a whole lot of information that gave them answers, says Dr. Morrell, now a clinical professor of neurology at Stanford University in Palo Alto, CA, and chief medical officer at Neuropace in Mountain View, CA. But in the last five or 10 years, there has been such interest in this area on the part of neurologists. We're in a much different place.
Thanks to data from clinical trials, registries, and other research, we now know that epilepsy-along with the medications used to treat it-impacts women uniquely throughout their adult lives. As a result, women with epilepsy should consider their condition when making important life decisions, such as planning for a baby.
