Menopause can cause a lot of challenges for women including dry eyes, but it’s not always such an obvious connection. “Sometimes actually your eyes will water and then they think it’s perhaps allergies but often it’s kind of because they’re dry, it’s like a reflex tearing effect,” Halifax-based optometrist Dr. Miriam Debly told CTV Your Morning Atlantic’s Crystal Garrett in an interview. “There are various symptoms that sometimes would lead patients to think that. Their eyes are feeling red or gritty, foreign body sensations.” Overall, Debly said dry eyes can be caused by environmental factors, staring at computer screens and from the heat or air conditioning. But when it comes to dry eyes and menopause, there are other reasons. “During midlife, many women do experience hormonal fluctuations, as we know, which causes inflammation in our body, and that inflammation, one of the side effects, is dryness of your eyes,” she said. Debly also noted that as woman age, their quality of tears actually becomes poorer. “With the estrogen drop in our bodies, it affects all kinds of mucus membranes and that can affect the quality of the tear film, so omega-3 for example, the fishy oils, which help our skin and our eyes, will affect and improve the quality of our tear film as well.” When to seek help Debly said without routine eye examinations, people might not know what they’re experiencing isn’t normal. “A lot of women are out there suffering not realizing,” she said. Women may attribute the headaches to scrolling on their phones for an extended period or working at their computers. “Sometimes it’s pain, sometimes it’s just redness, they’re rubbing their eyes more frequently,” she said. “If they seek the attention of an optometrist then we can help them to diagnose the dry eyes.” Debly said there are lots of natural therapies women can do at home to help their dry eyes. “Breaking away from your screens. It’s called the 20-20 rule. Drinking more water, massaging the lower eyelids with a warm compress can often stimulate the oils in the glands and help improve the quality of your tears,” she said. “If those things are not working or just masking your symptoms, you can go into artificial tears which are available over the counter and then there are now actually cyclosporine drops that can be used to replace the tears in your eyes.”
