Why is it that antiepileptic drugs decrease the effectiveness of birth control?
Some antiepileptic medications increase the metabolism in the liver. Birth control pills are metabolized by the liver – so they are broken down very quickly and do not work as well as they normally would. But they remain an effective method. In addition, only some antiepileptic drugs, those that are called enzyme inducers have this effect. Many of the newer drugs do not affect birth control pills. Finally, other options such as Depo-Provera can also be very effective.
