SAN DIEGO — A survey of women with epilepsy showed that only about half used a highly effective method of birth control, Dr. Alison M. Pack reported in a poster session at the annual meetings of the American Epilepsy Society and the Canadian League Against Epilepsy.
The findings underscore the importance of asking women with epilepsy about their birth control methods, said Dr. Pack of the department of neurology at Columbia University, New York.
“It's not something you ask about once. I think you need to include it in each of your visits with patients,” she said in an interview. “You have to ask them what their method of contraception is, and I think you need to counsel them on that.”
In what she said is the largest study of its kind, Dr. Pack and her associates asked 180 female patients with epilepsy aged 18–44 years to complete a questionnaire between July 2005 and February 2006 about their reproductive history, sexual behavior, current risk of pregnancy, and contraceptive use. The women were patients at Columbia's epilepsy center and at two other New York-based clinics specializing in treating patients with the disorder.
Of the 180 women, 148 (82%) completed the questionnaire. Their mean age was 32 years; 32% described themselves as Hispanic. The women reported a wide range of educational attainment and income levels. Most (93%) described themselves as heterosexual, three as homosexual, three as bisexual, and four did not answer.
Of the 78 respondents who reported having sexual intercourse in the past 30 days, 58 (74%) used contraception.
Contraceptive methods included male condoms (36%), withdrawal (31%), oral contraception (27%), male or female sterilization (17%), contraceptive patch (5%), rhythm method (5%), intrauterine device (2%), depot medroxyprogesterone (Depo-Provera) (2%), and “other” (19%).
The researchers also found that of the 21 women who reported using a hormonal birth control method, 6 (29%) took an enzyme-inducing antiepileptic drug that is known to increase susceptibility to pregnancy. The respondents reported 181 pregnancies, of which 91 (50%) were unplanned.