Hi everyone! I just wanted to know if anyone has had the same problem as me. I have epilepsy since the age of 7 I was well contolled and still am but I found out that I can't have children at the age of 18. I was diagnosed with POF (pre-mature ovarian failure) I am undergoing invitro this summer, I am now 25 yrs old. I just wanted to know if anyone has had a hard pregnancy being epileptic? Meaning meds and out of control, and if the children were born healthy? Thank you very much! I look forward to your replies!

Mindy

Well I started having seizures when I was 21, and after that they told me it would probably be pretty hard for me to have children, for some reason women with seizures, either because of the meds or the disease or both, have a harder time. Anyway, I stayed on the BC pill anyway, just in case, cause I wasnt' married yet. Well, i am 27 now. And last October, still on the pill, and on all the meds, without trying, I got pregnant! We had planned on starting to try in January, and I had been told that I would probably have to take fertility drugs for at least 6 momths, probably longer. Anyway, the pregnancy so far (knock on wood) has been pretty uneventful, the baby is doing well, I have had a few problems, the meds have to be upped a lot, I have gone from 400mg of lamictal a day to 1000 a day, but oh well. And I had to quit driving for now, because the meds are makign me dizzy, plus even though I have only had one actual seizure, I have had some "out of it" times, and some passing out spells, which have nothing to do with that, just one of the joys of pregnancy. Anyway, we have 9 weeks and 3 days left to go, so I will let you know how it turns out.
Almost two years ago I started taking folic acid, at first only 2mg a day, then as we got closer to when we were gonna start trying, I upped it to 4mg (you can't overdose) because that can really help prevent birth defects, if they havent' told you, go ahead and do that. It will probably give you a little more energy too!
Good luck to you, I wish you all the best!

Thanks for your reply I appreciate it very much I am taking 5 mg of folic acid at the moment and I am also keeping in contact with my Neurologist which lives 9 hours away but we are keeping in touch by fax, he faxes me at home to let me know what meds to drop and how everything is going, which is great of him. I am very happy everything is going well. When did you up your dosage of meds? was it recently? just wondering because that is quite abit wow! I am on alot of meds I am on 1200 Tegretol and 30mg of frizium but I have dropped a few Friziums and so far so good. I really look forward to hearing about the knew arrival! That is nice I hope everything goes good at this end as well I wish you all the best of luck, until next time! Take care!

Mindy