Birth Control Pills

[janedoe1969]

Hi all. Me again. I just have question after question. Sorry. Trying to rule out everything I can. I have been on birth control pills for 17 years now---Trivora to be exact. Has anyone gotten off of the pills and seen a difference? My eye dr. just said "yes, they could be a component of dry eyes", and believe or not, the nurse & my ob/gyn doc had never heard of birth control pills affecting eyes. Geeeze. They are suppose to look into this and call me tomorrow or Tuesday. I am on them for regularity only. I tried to get off years ago but it was horrible so I started taking them again. Just wanting to know if getting off of these or maybe going to a lower dose pill (or patch) might help. Thank you.

[stephgurl1986]

Birth control pills can affect your eyes, it says so in every package insert I've read over the years. I've taken it for 6 years now and a lot of alternative practicioner told me I should stop it. I'll have an appoinment this week and will discuss it with my doctor, I think I might stop taking it for 6 months and see what happens.

[NYer]

Hi Steph,
I have a similar question running in another thread that you might want to check out.

http://http://www.dryeyezone.com/tal...ead.php?t=5260

Also, I noticed your comment in your other thread wondering if the patch would be better. There is no reason why the patch would be better...if you are getting dry eyes from the Pill, you'd get it from the Patch, too - the issue is with the hormones, not the means of delivery. The question is: Does the amount of the hormone affect whether or not you get dry eyes from the pill or the patch and, if so, does the patch deliver a lower level of hormone than the pill.

I don't know the answer to that and I've also been on the pill for a really long time. I'm debating either switching to a low-dose pill or going off completely. I'd rather not have to go off, but it's hard to get a straight answer from GYNs about which is preferable because, for some reason, they don't seem to have any familiarity with the side effect of dry eyes, so they really don't know.

[Lucy]

Not exactly birth control pills, but I've been on HRT and off HRT with the dry eyes and nary a difference either way. Have stopped or changed a couple of meds that "may" contribute to dry eye and that didn't make a difference either. FWIW. Lucy

[odydnas]

I don't think that birth control pills caused my dry eye, but i think it pushed me over the edge and triggered it. I've always had mild dry eye, and then I started taking different birth control pills, and within 2 weeks my eyes were unbearably dry.

Now I'm scared to get back on the pill...sigh