Dr Rachael Sumner has been awarded a highly prestigious Neurological Foundation First Fellowship to undertake a project exploring whether the menstrual cycle increase seizures for many women with epilepsy. Epilepsy is one of the most common, debilitating neurological conditions in the world, affecting 1-2% of the population. For women with epilepsy, their menstrual cycle will change their seizures. Around 40% will experience more than twice as many seizures as they usually would, and only at certain points of their menstrual cycle. This is called catamenial epilepsy.
During her fellowship Rachael will study how menstrual cycle related changes in hormone levels affect the human female brain. Current theories suggest that the rapid hormone withdrawal which naturally occurs late in the menstrual cycle causes most menstrual cycle based neurological and psychiatric disorders. This theory is also thought to explain catamenial epilepsy. However, it does not explain why not all women with epilepsy are affected.
One of the major challenges this area of study is that there is not just a lack of understanding on how catamenial epilepsy occurs – but in fact how the menstrual cycle affects the human brain more generally. As a result Rachael will begin her fellowship by recruiting and studying women without epilepsy over the course of their menstrual cycle. She will then also recruit a group of women with epilepsy who do not have catamenial seizures and a group of women who experience catamenial seizures to understand why many, but not all, women with epilepsy have catamenial seizures. This study will investigate the most common form of catamenial epilepsy which occurs in the days surrounding menstruation.
In each study Rachael will use electroencephalography to record brain waves. Blood sampling will test changes in hormone levels. Computational modelling techniques will help identify how chemical systems in the brain are being changed by key hormones oestrogen and progesterone.
A better understanding of the cause of catamenial seizures will direct the search for effective and targeted treatments.
Contact email: r.sumner@auckland.ac.nz
