Explanation of dry eye cause and why eye can produce soap (saponin) by doc

[How]

Just found this and thought it might really help some of the people here. I have an issue where my eyes produce a kind of soapy substance (saponin) but I never understood why. Well the explanation is in this vid...Finally, an answer!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HSF45Wx9BOE

(Also I'm not necessarily recommending people try the potato eye warmer he's mentioning here, I use one of the standard kinds you get from the optometrist and it works fine for me. It's important to make sure you get the right temperature with an eye compress or it won't work properly.)

[LindaDawn]

Hi. Thank u for your post. I have experienced the saponification. Horrendous soapy eyes! Not very well known.. And I have tried the heated potato on my eyes too. Worked ok.

[How]

Hi Linda, I believe we spoke before? I think you were the one to tell me my eyes were producing soap. Optometrist backed that up. I'm just so freaked out that this can even happen...I'm convinced there must be a long term solution for it though. If it's some sort of bacterial overgrowth then is there no way to control it (besides very involved stuff you have to do every day, like rinsing out eyes and cleaning them with wipes etc)? Anyway it's my new quest to find the solution, so if i come across anything novel that works I will post. How is your situation?

[LindaDawn]

Hi How. Feel sure we must have. I only had the soapy eyes just after I started suffering from extreme dry eye and my ophthalmologist prescribed me doxycycline 100mg once a day. After around 4 days of taken the doxycycline I experienced the soapy eyes. It really freaked me out as no one had told me to expect this. I nearly stopped the doxycycline!!!! But around 2 years later I stumbled upon an article on the net that explained why this happens. I am not doing great after 4.5 years but I am a little better. I was wanting to go to Switzerland and end it all as my quality of life was horrendous. I keep a diary and try and put the focus on what I have done rather than what I cannot do. For example Sunday nite I manage to stay up and watch a tv programme and went to a friend’s house the nite before. Just got back from a shop trip I had to cut short as eyes burning.However I haven’t had to take any pain killers for almost 2 months so tha5 is brilliant news. On a 6month course of doxycycline 100mg again. Got 1 month left. God knows how I will be after that. Think I need to try IPL . How are u doing?

[How]

Hi Linda, I am not doing that great today frankly. I have been worse though, when first my eyes got really dry I was literally trapped in the house over winter. I got a treatment done after a few months once it warmed up, I had blephex done. I didn't want to--the optometrist started the treatment without even getting my permission--and it was actually kind of terrifying but I think it maybe helped a bit.

Then my eyes went from super super dry and getting that soapy issue twice a day approximately to pretty watery for a bit, but in a kind of bad way and I would still have to rinse them out twice a day. Over this winter I have managed to get out a bit more than last but I pay for it every time I go out, And then some days like today I get gunky watery eyes where I'm constantly having to fuss over them just to get through the day. It may be I have yet another infection...(keep getting those). I was lucky this winter was not that cold too. It would have been way worse had it been.

I'm so sorry your eyes were so bad you felt you would have to end it all. If it means anything i have had really serious health issues where there was no cure or even good treatment and after a lot of work i managed to find solutions that worked for some of them (well basically this was one problem that caused a lot of symptoms and i fixed some of the worst symptoms.) So I know from experience that even when things seem like they can't improve, sometimes they really can. My optometrist was just telling me there's a new dry eye treatment out that right now is super expensive but I believe they think it may be successful so please don't give up. At least it seems that they keep searching for better solutions, I think we can expect to see more treatments coming out besides this new one so I think there is some reason to hope we will get better.

I was thinking of trying IPL too, was just asking a doctor if it is applicable for a skin issue I have. I don't know if you get this I'm losing not only eyelashes but eyebrows too. I'm being looked at for some underlying health issue that would explain all of this. It's very confusing to sort out...If I do have IPL will post back about how it goes and if it seems to do anything.

I hope the doxy manages to clear this all up for you. Also good to hear you are managing to get some things done. It is upsetting to be so limited in what you can do and I have the hardest time trying to explain to people what is going on. The "my eyes produce soap" line just isn't working frankly, I sound like a science experiment gone wrong!! But I can't do certain things either, still am pretty trapped in the house most of the winter, Can't drive due to never knowing when my eyes might start stinging badly. i was lucky this past summer I was able to get away a few hours by train but I can't travel much further no matter how I get there. That I think is the worst part of this for me.