Long‐term Outcome in Children with Temporal Lobe Seizures. II: Marriage, Parenthood and Sexual Indifference

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Abstract
Unselected children (100) with clinical and EEG evidence of temporal lobe seizures were followed into adult life. Data related to marriage and reproduction are analyzed. Female survivors, if not totally handicapped, are nearly all married; surviving males who are not totally handicapped more often remain single. Early remission of seizures in males is associated with marriage; seizures continuing through adolescence are associated with sexual appetitive indifference. The female probands have produced children at a rate 3 times greater than the male probands. Implications for understanding the development of male sexual appetite are discussed. The epidemiology and genetics of these forms of seizures must take account of much greater fitness on the distaff side of the pedigree. The likelihood of marriage and parenthood appears to rest on a few biological factors usually recognizable before the end of childhood.