Epilepsy in women comes with many potential effects on fertility, reproduction, menstrual cycle and sexual development.  Both the disease, and the medications prescribed can have negative effects on a woman’s menstrual cycle and fertility; antiepileptic drugs increase the risk of major congenital malformations (MCMs) in the offspring of women with epilepsy. Author Crawford P. from…

Carefully and closely-monitored clinical management is extremely important for epileptic women who are trying to become pregnant, for an epileptic woman’s ‘seizure frequency’ or patterns may change during the course of her pregnancy.  Seizure activity and the mothers’ exposure to antiepileptic drugs can cause damage to a developing fetus or embryo.  Author Pack AM. From…

The harmful effects that antiepileptic drugs may have on a developing fetus are well-known.  Many studies have shown with quite certainty that the amount of antiepileptic drugs (AEDs) a mother uses during her pregnancy is correlated with an increased risk for major congenital malformations (MCMs) in her children.  For this reason alone, most doctors would…

Multi-institutional or multicenter studies play an important role in the comprehensive understanding of the damaging capabilities antiepileptic drugs (AEDs) have on an embryo or fetus.   Nakane Y., author of a report titled “Multi-institutional Study on the Teratogenicity and Fetal Toxicity of Antiepileptic drugs: a Report of a Collaborative Study group in Japan”, explains…

Future studies are in high demand to accurately understand the fetus- and embryo-damaging capabilities of antiepileptic drugs (AEDs).  Much research has been done on older antiepileptic drugs, but there has been little research done on the newer generations of AEDs.  The aim of an article titled “The Australian Register of Antiepileptic Drugs in…

In an article from the Department of Neuropsychiatry at  Hirosaki University in Japan, called “Congenital Malformations Due to Antiepileptic Drugs”, author Kaneko S. writes the goal of the study was “to identify the major risk factors for the increased incidence of congenital malformations in offspring of mothers being treated for epilepsy with antiepileptic…

Over the past 30 years, studies have shown that antiepileptic drugs (AEDs) are capable of interfering with development an embryo, potentially causing serious birth defects and developmental malformations.  The ability of AEDs to harm an embryo fetus is associated with etero exposure and a dose-response relationship has been highly accepted in the medical world, and…