Challenges Facing Women

More than one million women and girls in the United States are living with a seizure disorder. They face many unique challenges, from changes during the monthly cycle which may trigger seizures to concerns regarding pregnancy. Social factors leave them vulnerable to discrimination and abuse. Yet their plight and the manner in which they are affected has largely been ignored.

Seizures often begin in puberty, intensifying what for young women is one of the most difficult times in their lives.

Adult epilepsy often involves areas of the brain that are sensitive to the effects of reproductive hormones.

Seizures, and especially the medications that control them, present a variety of risks to pregnant women and their babies.

Seizures that begin at puberty may improve at menopause - or may become worse. The factors influencing either outcome are unknown.

Despite their importance to women's health, the role of hormones as a contributing cause or treatment for epilepsy has received very little systemic investigation.

What little research has been done supports what women have been saying for years -- namely, that seizures are worsened by hormonal swings in the monthly cycle.

For women, patient care may be compromised because these issues are not widely researched or understood. Despite the fact that half the people who have epilepsy are women, practically all the research on this condition has involved men.

More information is available in the Women in Epilepsy Initiative section.