October’s World Menopause Awareness Month highlights that women can spend over a decade of their lives experiencing menopause and often describe it as ‘drowning in symptoms’.

The good news is that the conversation has moved beyond hot flushes and night sweats to include how hormonal changes affect bones, brain, mood, heart, mental health and eyes.

Specialist eye hospital group Optegra Eye Clinic Sheffield highlights:

Almost half (48 per cent) of UK adults are unable to recognise the eye health symptoms which can be caused by menopause, including blurred vision and irritated eyes.
One of the main symptoms of menopause is dry eye disease, yet only 21 per cent of people questioned in Optegra research are aware of this condition.

Lucy Vale didn't realise that her symptoms were related to menopause

placeholder image — Lucy Vale didn't realise that her symptoms were related to menopause

Optegra is raising awareness of the link between menopause and eye health, and how choices like diet, exercise, sleep and stress management can impact menopause symptoms.

Dr Nabila Jones, optometrist and research associate at Optegra, says: “There are a number of changes to women’s eyes as they age and enter the menopause. Hormonal fluctuations such as excess or reduced oestrogen can affect the glands of the eyes that produce tears and the balance of tears, contributing to dry eye disease.

“Despite its name, a frequently reported symptom of dry eye disease is that eyes become overly watery. This is caused by the glands of the eye not producing enough oils for the outer layer of the tear film, so tears quickly evaporate. The eyes overcompensate by making more tears of poor quality causing watery eyes.

“Simple over-the-counter eye drops can bring immediate relief to symptoms of dry eye yet thousands of women are putting up with debilitating symptoms because they are not aware of the cause.”

For nurse Lucy Vale, 47, her peri-menopause symptoms came as a surprise, but she had not realised her dry eye may be connected to hormones too. She said: “I have worked in nursing for 20 years and always had good recall, good memory and then suddenly I was getting such brain fog, anxiety and irritability I could not work out what was happening to me.

“Over the past year I have noticed that my eyes are very dry and irritable. I wear contact lenses, and while I used to feel the need to have a day off once a month, now I have to once a week. My eyes are so dry it makes me want to rub them, to move my contact lens and try to get more comfortable, but that just makes it feel even more gritty. It can affect my vision too, making it hard to read at times.

“I use eye drops to lubricate them which helps, but I had not realised it may be connected to being peri-menopausal. The more we all learn about these symptoms the better, so we can all get the help we need.”

Dr Jones shares the top five eye problems to look out for in menopause:

Blurry vision, or vision appearing ‘smeary’
Overly watery eyes
Irritated eyes that have a foreign body, gritty or burning sensation.
Difficulty putting in contact lenses and reduced comfort due to vision changes and dry eye
Stringy mucous discharge

Optegra has created a handy guide of top tips to help ease the pain of sore, dry eyes for women during peri-menopause or menopause.

Almost all of us over-use technology and this can cause eyes to dry out as we actually forget to blink when focusing so hard on screens. The advice is to follow the 20-20-20 rule to give your eyes a break – look away from your screen to a distance of 20 feet, for 20 seconds, every 20 minutes.
A diet rich in Omega 3 may be useful to help prevent and manage dry eye disease. Foods such as nuts (walnuts), seeds (flax seeds) and oily fish (salmon and mackerel) are examples of foods rich in Omega 3.
Use ocular lubricants – eye drops which act as artificial tears, opt for preservative-free options. They are widely available from your local pharmacy, optometrist or eye doctor.
Lid hygiene measures for meibomian gland dysfunction such as hot compresses, and blepharitis wipes to keep the eyelids clean are helpful.
And don’t forget to carefully remove eye make-up before bed.

Find out more on eye health at www.optegra.com

Optegra Eye Health Care is a specialist provider of ophthalmic services. Established in 2007, it has completed over one million eye procedures from its 78 eye hospitals and clinics across the UK, Czech Republic, Poland, Slovakia and Holland.

As well as providing private vision correction treatments – from lens replacement and laser eye surgery to implantable contact lenses – Optegra treats cataract surgery both privately and through its partnership with the NHS. Optegra also treats medical conditions AMD and glaucoma; and has launched the first ever treatment for people with the Dry form of AMD.

Optegra brings together leading-edge research, medical expertise and state-of-the-art surgical equipment. It performs more than 170,000 treatments annually, both private and publicly funded. Its top ophthalmic surgeons are renowned for their areas of expertise, offering excellent clinical outcomes and great patient service.