Epilepsy Summary
I've written three pieces talking about epilepsy:
As I write this, there is a fourth piece about PMDD that says see my previous posts about epilepsy because it's another condition being blamed on hormones apparently in spite of no supporting evidence and in the case of PMDD evidence to the contrary.
They are a bit messy. Hopefully, this will be clearer.
B vitamins are extremely important to brain function.
B vitamins are water soluble and essential to the production of blood cells.
Any condition involving brain function, like epilepsy, impacted by menstruation should be investigated as possibly being triggered by menstruation causing B vitamin shortages.
If you are MtF trans and epileptic, you should be extremely extremely curious as to the exact connection between menstruation and epilepsy because if it's rooted in the bleeding per se and not the hormones per se, it shouldn't apply to you. You should be looking for any studies that speak to actual cause because if it's menstruation, HRT should not be a problem for your epilepsy.
Similarly:
The brain is hands down the highest cholesterol organ in the body.
Cholesterol is the precursor for progesterone, estrogen and testosterone.
Bone marrow is fatty and is where all blood cells are produced. Firsthand experience suggests to me my condition -- cystic fibrosis -- causes immune dysfunction in part because we misprocess fats and this impairs bone marrow function. That's my opinion and I cannot prove it.
But IF hormone production is actually triggering epileptic seizures in menstruating women, it may be due to causing a shortage of cholesterol in the brain. Cholesterol is probably defacto an insulator and epilepsy is probably an electrical misfiring in the brain wiring.
Again: If you are a MtF epileptic, you should be extremely extremely interested in these details because taking hormones instead of making hormones shouldn't cause any competition for cholesterol.
You should be looking for medical studies that look into these details because if the problem is the actual bleeding or the competition for resources caused by either bleeding or hormone production, none of this should be relevant to the decision to HRT or not to HRT.
If you are an epileptic cis female, you should also want to know because the implication is that supplements or dietary changes may help you avoid seizures.
Last but not least: These are not separate issues. The brain builds 95 percent of its cholesterol from B5.