What’s all the hubub about epilepsy and infertility?

A recent study published in the journal, Neurology, addresses the fact that women taking multiple medications to treat epilepsy are at high risk for infertility. This may well be true, but considering anticonvulsants or medicine to control epilepsy often reduces the efficacy of the Pill, there are plenty of mommies with epilepsy out there that had unplanned pregnancies. This does not exactly correspond to the headlines on WebMD, Reuters and other news outlets claiming that women with epilepsy are more likely to be infertile.

In a follow up article in Neurology, Alison Pack, MD, attempts to dispel the myth already setting in. Read more in my guest post on Feministing.com

Jessica K. Smith Founder and CEO; Executive Director

Jessica Keenan Smith is a patient advocate and epilepsy community leader with more than 15 years of experience. As Founder and CEO of Living Well With Epilepsy and Executive Director of ASENT she bridges the gap between the scientific and patient communities, with a particular focus on the needs of the epilepsies. Jessica Keenan Smith is Founder and CEO of Living Well With Epilepsy, an award winning online resource for people affected by epilepsy to share stories and access in-depth information on the disease. Since 2009, Living Well With Epilepsy (https://livingwellwithepilepsy.com) has been featured in Forbes, Wired, NBC, NPR and the cover story of Epilepsy Advocate Magazine and has partnered with companies such as UCB, Lundbeck, Sunovion, Eisai, and more. Ms. Smith is also the Executive Director of the American Society for Experimental Neurotherapeutics (ASENT) (https://asent.org), an organization that brings together leaders from industry, academia, government and advocacy who are engaged in bringing drugs and devices to market across all neurologic disease states. In this role she is responsible for leading a successful scientific journal and annual scientific conference with speakers from all over the world.

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