Pennell PB, et al. - Authors sought to examine if women with epilepsy (WWE) without a prior diagnosis of infertility or related disorders were as likely to achieve pregnancy within 12 months as their peers without epilepsy. Findings demonstrated that women with epilepsy seeking pregnancy without prior known infertility or related disorders displayed similar tendency of achieving pregnancy, time to pregnancy, and live birth rates in comparison with their peers without epilepsy.

Methods

• The Women With Epilepsy: Pregnancy Outcomes and Deliveries study was an observational cohort study that compared fertility in WWE with fertility in control women (CW) without epilepsy.
• Enrollment was carried out at 4 academic medical centers and candidates were observed up to 21 months, from November 2010 to May 2015.
• Women aged 18 to 40 who wanted to get pregnant were enrolled within 6 months of discontinuing contraception, and those who used tobacco or had a prior diagnosis of infertility or disorders that reduce fertility were excluded.
• The Women With Epilepsy: Pregnancy Outcomes and Deliveries electronic diary app was used to record data on medications, seizures, sexual activity, and menses.
• Data analysis conducted from November 2015 to June 2017.
• The percentage of women who got pregnant within 12 months after enrollment was the main outcome.
• Time to pregnancy (using a proportional hazard model), pregnancy outcomes, sexual activity, ovulatory rates, and analysis of epilepsy factors in WWE were secondary outcomes.
• All outcomes were planned prior to data collection except for time to pregnancy.

Results

• Among 197 women, 142 (72.1%) were white, and the mean (SD) age was 31.9 (3.5) years among the 89 WWE and 31.1 (4.2) among the 108 CW.
• Out of 89 WWE, 54 (60.7%) achieved pregnancy compared to 65 (60.2%) among 108 CW.
• No variation was reported in the median time to pregnancy between the groups, after controlling for key covariates (WWE: median, 6.0 months; 95% CI, 3.8-10.1; CW: median, 9.0 months; 95% CI, 6.5-11.2; P=.30).
• Comparable sexual activity and ovulatory rates were seen amongst WWE and CW.
• It was determined that 44 of 54 pregnancies (81.5%) in WWE and 53 of 65 pregnancies (81.5%) in CW led to live births.
• There were no significant epilepsy factors.