A Prospective Study of Pregnancy in Women with Epilepsy Seeking Conception (The WEPOD Study) (I5.001)

Objectives: To compare time to pregnancy and outcomes (live birth, miscarriage) among women with epilepsy and healthy controls . Background: The Women with Epilepsy: Pregnancy Outcomes and Deliveries (WEPOD) study is a multi-center prospective, observational study of women with epilepsy (WWE) and healthy controls (HC). Previous studies suggest WWE have lower fertility compared to HC. Design/Methods: We enrolled and prospectively followed WWE and HC, ages 18-41 years, seeking pregnancy within 6 months of discontinuing contraception. The customized WEPOD electronic diary captured medication use, seizures, sexual activity, and menstrual bleeding. Pregnancy tests were performed if there was no menses by cycle day 35. Outcomes included proportions who achieved pregnancy, and time to pregnancy from cessation of birth control. We used a proportional hazard model to evaluate the association between time to pregnancy and certain baseline characteristics. Results: We enrolled 88 WWE and 109 HC with similar demographic characteristics. In WWE, 61.4[percnt] achieved pregnancy vs 60.6 [percnt] for HC (p= 0.9074).Median time to pregnancy was 6.0 months (95[percnt] CI: 3.8 - 10.5) in WWE compared to 9.0 (95[percnt] CI: 6.9-12.9) for HC, (p=0.395). Time to pregnancy was no different across the two groups after controlling for age, BMI, parity and race. Race (p=0.0007) and parity (p=0.0083) were significantly associated with time to pregnancy. Of the pregnancies that occurred, a similar proportion resulted in miscarriage (12.9[percnt] WWE and 19.7[percnt] controls), live birth (80.0[percnt] WWE and 80.3[percnt] controls) or other outcome (5.0[percnt] vs 0.0[percnt]). Conclusions: WWE seeking pregnancy had comparable likelihood of achieving pregnancy, time to achieve pregnancy, and pregnancy outcomes compared to a group of healthy peers. These findings should reassure WWE and clinicians when counseling WWE who are planning pregnancy. Study supported by: The Epilepsy Foundation. Disclosure: Dr. French has received personal compensation for activities with Acorda, Anavex, Brabant Pharma, Bio-Pharm Solutions, Eisai Medical Research, Glaxo Smith-Kline, GW Pharma, Impax, Johnson and Johnson, Marinus, Neusentis, Neurelis, Novartis, Roivant, Pfize Dr. Harden has received royalty payments from Wiley and Up-to-date. Dr. Pennell has nothing to disclose. Dr. Bagiella has nothing to disclose. Dr. Andreopoulos has nothing to disclose. Dr. Lau has nothing to disclose. Dr. Cornely has nothing to disclose. Dr. Barnard has nothing to disclose. Dr. Davis has nothing to disclose.