When you finally make the connection that your seizures have something to do with your menstrual cycle, you wonder if you’re crazy, or if it’s a real thing, and it is called Catamenial Epilepsy. It took me years to make the connection and sadly, when I did, there was NO information available, NO doctors that I had access too that had a clue, and NO way to connect with others who may have been dealing with a similar thing in order to learn more.
Seizures that occur during specific phases of the menstrual cycle are classified as Catamenial seizures. Because progesterone is naturally calming, and estrogen as a rule is more excitatory, the unbalanced ratio between the two can lead to a sensitivity in many women that causes their seizure threshold to be lowered when the two neuro-steroid hormones are not as they should be.
My daughter developed catamenial epilepsy at puberty, after we had already been dealing with absence/petite mal seizures for the majority of her young life after a vaccine injury. The change in her hormones put her seizure activity into hyper-drive and I was forced to commit the next 10 years into researching, studying, and doing ‘at home trials’ to help her recover – naturally.
I have dedicated over a decade to amassing countless medical studies, taking classes, and learning all that I can about hormones, seizures, their connection and how to recover them – naturally. If we did it, then so can you.
Here’s one piece of the puzzle – some proof to bring to your doctor that will hopefully help him/her see that you’re onto something:
“Catamenial epilepsy is a menstrual cycle-related seizure disorder that affects up to 70% of women with epilepsy. Catamenial epilepsy is characterized by an increase in seizures during particular phases of the menstrual cycle. Three distinct patterns of catamenial epilepsy – perimenstrual, periovulatory, and inadequate luteal phase – have been described. Currently, there is no specific treatment for catamenial epilepsy. The molecular mechanisms involved in the pathophysiology of catamenial epilepsy are not well understood. Recent studies suggest that cyclical changes of ovarian hormones estrogens (proconvulsant) and progesterone (anticonvulsant) appear to play a key role in the genesis of catamenial seizures. Progesterone reduces seizure susceptibility partly through conversion to neurosteroids such as allopregnanolone, which enhances GABA(A) receptor function and thereby inhibits neuronal excitability. In animal models, withdrawal from chronic progesterone and, consequently, of allopregnanolone levels in brain, has been shown to increase seizure susceptibility. Natural progesterone therapy has proven effective in women with epilepsy. Moreover, neurosteroids have been shown to be very effective inhibitors of catamenial seizures in animal models. Thus, synthetic neuroactive steroids, such as ganaxolone, which are orally active and devoid of hormonal side effects, represent a novel treatment strategy for catamenial epilepsy. However, their clinical efficacy in catamenial epilepsy has yet to be explored. A greater understanding of the molecular mechanisms is clearly needed for designing effective treatment and prevention strategies of catamenial epilepsy in women at risk.”
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/15579299
For more information about Catamenial Epilepsy and what you can do about it, click here. I’d love to help you put the puzzle pieces together, save you time, and get you ‘armed’ to go into your doctor with some proof that seizures can be related to the changes in your hormones.
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