How Hormone Changes Can Affect Dry Eye in Women

As a woman, I’ve always struggled with PMS (premenstrual syndrome) since the beginning of my menstrual cycles as a teenager. PMS symptoms became a common visitor every month, alerting me of what was to come. Typically, it was just the usual – more crankiness and mood swings, cravings for sweets, and of course eventually the dreaded cramps. Over time, I learned to manage them and they just became another part of life.

Finding the connection between chronic dry eye and my monthly cycle

At some point, as I developed other chronic health conditions, however, my PMS symptoms increased and became more of an issue. I had all the topical symptoms of PMS, just 10 times worse. As I continued to struggle with eczema and topical steroid withdrawal growing up, I noticed I had extreme changes in my skin right before and during my monthly cycle as well. Now, in recent years, I’ve also learned it affects my chronic dry eye symptoms as well.

A week or two before my period, it seems like my body just kind of blows up and all of my chronic health conditions get worse. My skin starts to itch and burn more. And in turn, my eyes start to get more dry and blurry as well. I find it much harder to put in my contacts during this time and I have to lubricate my eyes much more often.

What do the experts say?

After doing some research, I found out that hormone changes in women are linked to dry eye changes as well – duh moment! Around 61 percent of perimenopausal and menopausal women are affected by dry eye syndrome.¹

During menopause, the body produces less estrogen, progesterone, and androgen. This causes a variety of uncomfortable symptoms and is likely the reason women also tend to experience changes during certain times of their monthly cycle.¹

Research shows that changes in estrogen during a woman’s cycle can worsen dry eye symptoms. Changing estrogen levels can affect tear production and thus alter eye tissue. This causes the eyes to become more dry and irritated.¹

Learning to take extra care in managing symptoms during this time

While I’ve (obviously) never been a fan of PMS symptoms, this has turned “that time of month” into an even more hellish experience for me. I find my eyes much more irritated, dry, and more prone to burning and discomfort during this time. In turn, this makes it even harder for me to get anything done. I just want to close my eyes and lay in the dark, frankly.

Unfortunately, that’s not always possible, and life beckons us. So, I do my best to do extra dry eye heat mask compresses, and use more eye drops to lessen the symptoms and discomfort. While it isn’t always guaranteed, it does help some. And thankfully, it passes fairly quickly. Just another thing in my life I’ve had to learn to be mindful of and work around. In order to preserve our sanity and take care of our health with dry eye and other health conditions, somehow, we learn to adjust.