I was put on the pill to help with the painful cramps, but the estrogen in these pills causes me to have seizures. Lori Catamenial epilepsy refers to a condition of seizures whose frequency increases during a woman's menstrual period. It is not a matter of no seizures until the period and then a bunch of them. Estrogens lower the threshold for seizures in the nerve pathways of the brain. In other words they permit a smaller electrical impulse along the nerve to start a complex cascade of electrical impulses that results in an epileptic seizure then would be necessary in the absence of estrogen.
Progesterone has the opposite effect.
It raises the threshold for electrical nerve conduction. With progesterone aboard, it takes more electrical stimulation to cause the convulsion. Taking estrogen medications may cause an increase is seizure activity in some women prone to this and taking progesterone may lessen seizures. It is interesting that at the time of menses there is a decrease in both estrogen AND progesterone. Therefore it is the lack of progesterone that was preventing some seizures that is the primary force leading to increased seizures in catamenial epilepsy.