Hi all

I have also been told by my optometrist that the hormones and pregnancy
cause changes not only in vision but also with how moist the eyes are.

At the time I was wearing hard contact lenses.  Because of specific eye ball
shape anominallies that I have, I am unable to wear soft contact lenses.  My
eyes were constantly red which I ignored as they were not sore.  I went for
a check up because I felt that my vision had changed during my pregnancy.
My vision had changed so I had new lenses prescribed.  Nothing was said
about the redness as they were not too bad.  After the birth of the baby (my
eldest now 11), I went back to have them checked again - and yes the vision
had changed again.  Lens again changed too.

When my son was 8 months old we moved and I went to a new optometrist.  The
redness was increasing.  What had happened was that my eyes were less than
optimally moist, I had developed numerous corneal ulcers.  The lenses
themselves were rubbing the cornea.  There was concern about how well they
would heal.  My eyes had reduced sensitivity and moisture problems. My
prescription was also changing, partly because my eye anominallies and also
hormones. This new Optometrist was studying her PhD and was doing work on
the lympatics, inflammation and healing of the eyes.  She had developed a
sideline interest in pregnancy and lactation it impact on the whole healing
and inflammatory process of the eye.  She confirmed that lactation and
pregnancy do have profound effect on eye health (as it does on oral health).
Some women go through significant ocular changes.

The end result for me was going back to glasses and the use of eye drops to
keep my eyes moist.  Some 10 years later I finally stopped lactating after
giving birth to 3 healthy children.  My eyes have stablized. I no longer
have red eyes.

The changes in eye strength does to my way of thinking make some sense when
one considers the hormone relaxin which is in abundance in pregnancy and
continues at high levels while lactating.  Relaxin is the hormone that
causes the ligaments to relax so that the pelvic area opens up for the
birthing process.  The hormone impacts all ligaments.  It is ligaments and
muscles that are important in eye focusing as well as eye ball shape.  I
would not be surprised if the hormone effects the eye muscles and ligaments
too and that was the surgens concern.

Happy Easter to those that celebrate Easter.

Ruth Fiedler
Australia

             ***********************************************

To temporarily stop your subscription: set lactnet nomail
To start it again: set lactnet mail (or digest)
To unsubscribe: unsubscribe lactnet
All commands go to [log in to unmask]

The LACTNET mailing list is powered by L-Soft's renowned
LISTSERV(R) list management software together with L-Soft's LSMTP(R)
mailer for lightning fast mail delivery. For more information, go to:
http://www.lsoft.com/LISTSERV-powered.html