Tues 5/1/12 - Epilepsy & Hormones
Nice to have these little reprieves. Once again Breck has
had no seizures last night in her sleep or throughout today at school or at
home. She is looking and feeling good.
Her menstrual cycle seems to have stopped having lasted
barely 4 days. Very short and light. Not sure how this will play out next
month... hmmm..
I found the following article from this website interesting:
And I will preface this with the fact that one test we ran
twice in 3 months is a saliva test for hormones and Breck's hormones were all
over the place - and actually she was ovulating more than once and on both
tests had dropped 2 eggs... Of course she was happy thinking she could have
twins some day. lol enjoy...
Smiles
Sean A'lee
Epilepsy and Your Changing Hormones
Women with epilepsy face different issues than do men with
epilepsy. For some women, the pattern of epileptic seizures is directly
affected by the normal hormonal cycles they experience throughout their lives.
Two primary sex hormones flow through women's bodies. One is
estrogen and the other is progesterone. Most of the time, your body has about
the same amount of each.
What does that have to do with epilepsy? Doctors have
learned that both of these hormones interact with brain cells. Estrogen is an
"excitatory" hormone, which means that it makes brain cells give off
more of an electrical discharge. Progesterone, on the other hand, is an
"inhibitory" hormone, which means that it calms those cells down.
When the body is making more estrogen than progesterone, it
can make the nervous system "excitable." In other words, you could be
at greater risk for seizures. The hormones aren't actually causing the
seizures, but they can influence when they happen.
Some women with epilepsy have more seizures at times when
their hormones are changing. For example, some young women have their first
seizures at puberty. Other women have more seizures around the time of their
menstrual periods. This doesn't happen to all women, so doctors are still
learning about how hormones and epilepsy interact.
Epilepsy and Your Menstrual Period
Some women have a form of epilepsy called catamenial
epilepsy. This refers to seizures that are affected by a woman's menstrual
cycle. Doctors aren't completely sure how many women with epilepsy have this,
but they think it's about 10% to 12%.
The exact cause of these seizures is unknown. However, some
women have most of their seizures when there is a lot of estrogen in their
body, such as during ovulation. Other women have seizures when progesterone
levels tend to drop, such as right before or during their period.
If you have seizures that start around the last half of your
menstrual cycle and continue through the whole second half of your cycle, then
you might have another type of catamenial epilepsy. This is when a woman has
menstrual cycles that do not release an egg. These are called
"anovulatory" cycles.
Women with epilepsy have more anovulatory cycles than other
women do. Some doctors think that as many as 40% of menstrual cycles in women
with epilepsy do not release an egg. It depends on the woman, and it is not
always the same every month. Some months a woman will release an egg, and some
months she will not. In general, though, women with epilepsy do not ovulate as
regularly as women without epilepsy.
Why is that? Doctors do not know for certain. But, some
seizures start in the temporal lobes of the brain. This is an area that is very
closely connected to the areas regulating hormones. Women who have seizures
that start in the temporal lobes may have their hormone production affected by
their seizures.
If you can identify the role hormones play in your seizure
patterns, it can help with your treatment. Try keeping a calendar of your
menstrual cycle, and the days that you have seizures. Include notes about other
factors that might be important, such as missed medication, sleep loss, stress,
or illness. By sharing these records with your doctor, you can work together to
manage your epilepsy more effectively.
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