Epilepsy and Low Education Linked to Infertility?

A new study in India found a number of factors that made someone more likely to experience infertility. Some of the findings include:

*women with epilepsy experienced infertility at more than twice the rate of the general population.

*women who were taking multiple epilepsy drugs were more likely to be infertile than those taking fewer drugs or no drugs for epilepsy.

Those who were taking three or more drugs for epilepsy were 18 times more likely to be infertile than those taking no epilepsy drugs. Seven percent of those taking no epilepsy drugs were infertile, compared to 32 percent of those taking one epilepsy drug, 41 percent of those taking two epilepsy drugs, and 60 percent of those taking three or more epilepsy drugs.

"This may be due to the adverse effects of taking multiple drugs or it could be a more indirect effect because people who are taking multiple drugs are more likely to have severe epilepsy that is difficult to treat," said study author Sanjeev Thomas, DM, of the Sree Chitra Tirunal Institute for Medical Sciences and Technology in Trivandrum, India.

Older women and women with less than 10 years of education were also more likely to experience infertility.

The relationship between lower education and infertility could also be due to difficult-to-treat epilepsy, which may make completing additional years of education challenging.