Contraception advice (enzyme inducing medicines)

This information is for women who take carbamazepine, eslicarbazepine acetate, oxcarbazepine, phenobarbital, phenytoin, primidone, rufinamide. It is also for women who take more than 200mg each day of topiramate.

Types of planned contraception that may work well for you

• Condoms
• Depo-Provera contraceptive injections
• Diaphragms and caps
• Femidoms
• Noristerat contraceptive injections
• The coil
• The Mirena coil

Types of planned contraception that may work for you (but there are extra things to consider)

• Combined oral contraceptive pill (the Pill)

If you want to try the Pill, your doctor may suggest you follow these steps, to make it work better:

1. take a version of the Pill that contains at least 50 micrograms of oestrogen; and
2. take the Pill all the time without the usual seven day break each month; and
3. take a version of the Pill which has at least twice the amount of progestogen than is usual.

If you have bleeding during the time that you are taking the Pill, this could be a sign that the Pill is not working very well. In this case, your doctor may increase the dose of oestrogen in steps of 10 micrograms, up to a maximum of 70 micrograms.

Even if you take a higher dose of the Pill, and even if you have no bleeding, it might still not work very well. For this reason, your doctor might advise you to use condoms as well, until they can be sure that the Pill would prevent you from getting pregnant. Or, they may advise you to change to a different type of contraception.

The doctor can check if you are at risk of getting pregnant by giving you blood tests at certain times of the month. The blood tests would show if the Pill has stopped you from ovulating (releasing an egg). This would mean that you shouldn’t get pregnant.

Types of planned contraception that would not work well for you

• Contraceptive implants
• Contraceptive patches
• Progestogen-only pill (the mini pill)
• Vaginal rings

Types of planned contraception that are not recommended for any woman with epilepsy

• Natural birth control methods

Emergency contraception

This information is for women who take carbamazepine, eslicarbazepine acetate, oxcarbazepine, phenobarbital, phenytoin, primidone, rufinamide. It is also for women who take more than 200mg each day of topiramate.

Types of emergency contraception that may work well for you

• The coil

Types of emergency contraception that may work for you (but there are extra things to consider)

• Levonelle (‘morning after’ pill)

You can use ‘morning-after’ pills. However, guidelines suggest that the coil would work more effectively at reducing the risk of pregnancy. If you choose to take Levonelle, you should take a pill that contains three milligrams of the hormone levonorgestrel, as soon as possible after sex. This is twice the amount of levonorgestrel that women who don’t take anti-epileptic drugs usually take. A dose of three milligrams levonorgestrel must be prescribed by a doctor.

Types of emergency contraception that would not work well for you

• EllaOne (‘morning after’ pill)