Seizures and reproductive ills linked
Women with epilepsy are more likely to have reproductive disorders than are other women. Two new studies shed light on the biology behind this link.
The temporal lobes–the parts of the brain just behind the temples–communicate with other areas of the brain that regulate sex hormones. So, Andrew H. Herzog of the Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center in Boston recruited 36 women whose seizures were triggered by abnormal bursts of activity in their temporal lobes. He and his colleagues monitored the electrical signals in the women’s brains for 8 straight hours and took blood samples every 10 minutes.