Provigil and birth control (plus some lessons on taking medication)

One of the reasons I decided to write this blog is that one of the things I’ve learned over the years is the importance of having general knowledge about Narcolepsy treatment (as opposed to, say, only knowing something about the medication you are personally taking and what your doctor tells you).  Over the years, I’ve learned a lot about Narcolepsy and Narcolepsy treatment, some of it from my sleep doctor and from personal experience, but much of it from talking with or reading about other Narcoleptics.  (This is especially true after having had Narcolepsy for so long: I know the basics but I am always learning more from other people.)

I mention the importance of general knowledge because there have been times when I have learned things that later made a big difference for me, even though at the time I did not think that it was particularly important.

The main example of this that comes to mind brings me to the topic of this post: Provigil and birth control. 

When I was a junior or a senior in high school, I met another Narcoleptic for the first time (at least, my first human Narcoleptic – my dog had Narcolepsy – more on that another time).  My mother arranged for me to have a meeting with the girlfriend of a family friend, who had Narcolepsy.  She was in her late 20s, and we talked for awhile.

She told me about how she deals with Narcolepsy: she was seeing a naturopath and following this low GI diet, but not taking any medication other than vitamins and such.  At the time, this worked well for her.  (Last I heard, she takes Xyrem.)  

I was taking a combination of Concerta and Provigil back then, and I asked her why didn’t she take Provigil.  I believe she might not have wanted to take traditional stimulants for some reason or was unable to do so. 

Her answer surprised me: she can’t take Provigil because she takes the birth control pill and Provigil makes that less effective.

This was news to me.  Here I had been on Provigil for multiple years and I had never heard about this.  Fortunately, I was not taking birth control and had no plans to, but my doctor had never mentioned that I shouldn’t combine the two.  I was shocked that I didn’t know something like this about my own medication.

I later asked my doctor about this when I decided to start taking birth control (a few years later), and I discovered that he had forgotten to mention the interaction.  At the time he put me on the drug, I was only 15 and being very shy, no boys were in the picture (and wouldn’t be until college), but I still should have known about this.  Having learned about the interaction from this one conversation with another Narcoleptic, years later when I wanted to take birth control, I knew I had to ask my doctor about whether I should still take Provigil, and in the end I decided to not take the drug anymore.

I hope that I would have found out about this interaction anyways before adding this medication, but it scares me that I might not have. 

Which brings me to a few more general lessons about taking medication:

1. Always read the information that comes with your medication, as you might learn something important. Doctors only have a limited time to spend with us and they might forget to mention something important or they might not know about something.  (Had I read the Provigil medication information in detail, I would have known about its interaction with birth control.)
2. It’s not a bad idea to learn as much about Narcolepsy and treatment as you can, even if you are satisfied with what you are currently doing.  You might just learn something that will be useful in the future.
3. Always check to make sure there are no drug interactions you aren’t aware of when you are adding a new medication.  It would probably be a good idea to re-read the information that comes with your other medications when you add a new one to make sure that there is no interactions you have forgotten about.  This seems like obvious advice, but I know I personally haven’t always done this.

Finally, I firmly believe that when it comes to medical problems (and especially Narcolepsy), knowledge is power.  That’s one of the main reasons why I’m writing this blog, and I suspect that that is why some of you are here: not because you are searching for one piece of information (say, experiences with a certain drug) but because you are looking for information in general in the hopes of finding something that is meaningful or helpful to you.

I think it’s good to keep this in mind when you read this blog: although you might not be looking for information on a certain topic, I believe that knowledge itself broadens your options and may prove useful some day. 

I think that there is a lot that we can learn from each other, and I’m enjoying sharing my story and experience and hearing from all of you. 

I only wish I had started this blog a long time ago!  :-)

Thoughts? Comments?

P.S.  I am so excited: on Saturday I go to the US (first time in two years)!  Oh, and yesterday I discovered some new music: Keane’s Perfect Symmetry.  If you like Keane, then you must check it out because it is AWESOME (way better than there other albums, in my opinion).  I can’t stop listening to it.  :-)  Sorry, I just had to share!

Happy Wednesday, everyone!