Menopause and your eyes
Your eyes can experience a number of changes and be impacted in many ways during perimenopause and menopause. One of the most common problems experienced by many women is dry eyes, but two other issues that can occur are vision changes and blurred vision.
So, let’s take a look at these two issues and what you can do to help your eyes:
Vision changes
One of the things that can happen is falling oestrogen levels, especially if it's a sudden drop, if there are sudden changes going on, this can affect the pressure of your eye. It can also affect your sight generally. So, if there's extra pressure in the eye or even a drop of pressure in the eye, that will change the way that your eye sees light, which will affect your vision.
You may find that you can't see close up as well as you could, you might have to squint, and you might have to start wearing glasses.
One of the tell-tale signs, especially if the shape of the eye changes (and oestrogen can affect this too), is that if you wear contact lenses you find that your contact lenses start to irritate the eye because they're not a good fit anymore.
This different pressure and changes in eye shape can also affect the production of tears, which can lead to dry eyes. What happens then is that, because your eyes are so dry, they will start to produce extra moisture and that can then lead to watery eyes. So, both of these conditions can be due to the same cause.
Blurred vision
The other thing that can happen here is that you can get blurred vision generally, and especially if your eyes are dry or really watery.
The sudden changes in oestrogen can affect the production of oil around the eye. So, there are little oil glands around the eye which help to keep everything elastic and moving well, especially the cornea. And if your corneal shape changes, or becomes less adaptive, then it's much more difficult for your eyes to correctly deal with the light that's going through them. So, that in itself is going to affect your vision and it can cause blurriness.
The other reason for blurriness is age. By the time we get to 45 to 55, it can be just simple ageing and nothing else. But it could also be health issues such as diabetes, so you've got to watch this one.
It can be eye strain. If you spend a lot of time on your computer or on your phone, that can be an issue. Also, one of the things that can happen in menopause is we are much more vulnerable to high blood pressure, and high blood pressure can affect your vision and cause blurred vision.
And the last but not least trigger for blurriness is dehydration. So, staying well hydrated is very, very important.
What can you do to help your eyes during perimenopause and menopause?
So, what to do for both these situations and to help support your eye health generally during perimenopause and menopause? Here are a few things I recommend:
Protect your eyes from the sun: If you live in a hot country or a country where there's a lot of sun, or during the summer months when the sun is out more, it's really important to protect your eyes from UV rays emitted from the sun with sunglasses that offer good sun protection. Look for sunglasses that have 100% UV or UV400 on the label. Sometimes cheap sunglasses don’t have this added protection, so it’s best not to buy these.
Rest your eyes: If you're doing a lot of computer work or if you're on your phone a lot, take regular breaks. Even just putting your hands over your eyes and closing them just to get that bit of darkness for a few seconds can be really, really helpful.
Cut down on smoking: Avoid smoking if you can because that's a big issue and we do know that smoking can affect the eyes as well.
Boost your nutrient intake: You need to look at your diet: it's really important. Remember your nutritional needs go up generally in the perimenopause and the menopause. So, you're looking at things like antioxidants and compounds such as lutein and zeaxanthin, zinc, omega 3 which is your fish oils, vitamin C and vitamin E, all of whcich are needed to help protect your eyes and also keep your eyes healthy.
Phytoestrogens: You can look at a phytoestrogen supplement to help with that fluctuation of oestrogen that may be going on, and contributing to your vision changes.
Heated eye pads: You can also use heated eye pads. These are very soothing, especially if your eyes get really tired and blurry by early evening.
A gentle eye massage: So, you would just very gently massage the eye, in towards the nose over the top of the eye, and very gently outwards towards the ear under the eye. This can be lovely and soothing for those tired eyes.
Get your eyes tested regularly: It’s important to get your eyes tested regularly once you hit perimenopause, because this is when changes can occur really quickly. Let your Optician know that you're in perimenopause or menopause so that they can take that into account.
Stay hydrated: Remember the water! This is really important. And if your eyes are dry as well, then go with a Sea Buckthorn Oil supplement.
What else can help?
If you're looking for supplements that contain extracts of things like lutein and zeaxanthin and zinc to help support your eye health, you could go with our Vision Complex tablets. And if your eyes are very dry then you could try our Extra Moisturising Eye Drops.
My Top Tip:
- Contains lutein, zeaxanthin and beta-carotene
- Rich in zinc
- Maintain healthy eyes and vision*
- Naturally occurring nutrients
- Suitable for Vegetarians and Vegans
- Can be used from the age of 12
*Zinc contributes to the maintenance of normal vision
When to consult your doctor?
If you try these changes and if your vision is still deteriorating or the blurriness is not abating at all, then do go and get this checked out by your doctor to rule out other health issues such as diabetes and high blood pressure.
So, I hope you found this one helpful. So many of you have come to me with eye issues so hopefully this is going to help. If any of you out there have had problems with your eyes or you've found things that have really helped you then do let us know.
And until next time, take care.
You may also find these topics helpful:
5 eye problems to look out for during menopause
Dry and itchy eyes in perimenopause and menopause
How menopause affects your 5 senses
