Epilepsy and Marriage
Is it okay to get married while having epilepsy?
Barriers to school, work, and marriage are among the psychosocial difficulties that people with epilepsy face. Marriage is a significant societal problem, but it is also a highly personal one for them, and it can be a tough struggle in their lives. Despite this, there are plenty of people with epilepsy all around the world who are having well-satisfying marriage lives. Several stakeholders around the world are trying to mitigate the stigma associated with epilepsy using many ways, including holding conferences and awareness campaigns.
First, it is crucial to communicate about this disease with your partner and clarify everything. People with epilepsy and their families often hide the knowledge that they have epilepsy during matrimonial discussions for fear of the planned marriage being rejected. In some cultures, there are lots of superstitious beliefs about epilepsy. So, keeping something like this condition from your partner might lead to adverse outcomes for your relationship in the future. Therefore, it is important to be honest from the very beginning.
It is said that marriage is 100% compatible with epilepsy. Like any other chronic disease like diabetes mellitus, or hypertension, there is nothing to worry about if you have reasonable control of the disease.
What should you do?
It is better if you can arrange a meeting with your doctor to clarify all the doubts and get answers to the queries in his or her mind. This would include queries like what epilepsy is and how it affects having children. Your partner should also be aware of what to do if you develop a seizure by any chance. For this, you can request your doctor to explain this also in simple terms.
It is also essential to discuss the current medications you are on before advancing to a pregnancy. As a woman with epilepsy, you can go through a safe pregnancy period without adverse outcomes if you take your medications correctly. For this, it is important to consult your doctor and get his opinion on you embarking on a pregnancy.
Some medications, such as Lamotrigine (Lamictal) and Levetiracetam (Keppra), are safe during pregnancy and delivery, and some are detrimental to the fetus like Valproic acid (Depakote/Depakene) and Topiramate (Topamax).
Will you pass epilepsy to your children?
Most people believe that epilepsy has a strong genetic association, and a person would pass the disease to his or her children. But this is a matter which is far from reality. As we know that epilepsy, in general, is not a genetic disorder, even though some cases and epilepsy syndromes can have a strong genetic association. Some harmful genetic variations (or gene alterations) can appear spontaneously in a child even when neither parent has them. Additionally, some epilepsies that have a genetic basis may also have environmental causes.
For example, the general population have a 1 to 2% risk of having epilepsy. However, if you have epilepsy yourself, the chances of you passing epilepsy to your children are at about 2 to 4%. Hence, the probability of passing epilepsy to your children from you is only minimally increased.
What to do on your wedding day?
Having an intimate life with your spouse does not cause or worsen your seizures. But ensuring that you have an adequate sleep without breaking your rest inappropriately is essential. You can discuss this with your partner and make necessary arrangements to avoid facing hectic situations as much as possible during the wedding day. This is very important because breaking rest can trigger seizures. Therefore, you must take your medications daily, including on the day of your wedding, so that you do not have any seizures triggered by the excitement or the stress of the wedding. Also, make sure to always have your medications with you.
If your partner is well aware of your condition, there is nothing to worry about, and you would be quite comfortable with your partner on your wedding night.
Conclusion
Finally, you can understand that even though there are plenty of challenges for the people with epilepsy in their marriage, proper understanding of the disease, taking medications as instructed by doctors and family counseling would pave the way for a happy married life. You can even have healthy children to fill your life with all the joy in the world!