Perimenopause and severe dry

[Pony]

Anyone else just beginning perimenopause and having a sudden onset of servere dry eye? Punctal plugs, drops, Restatsis, TheraLife, flax oil no help. Have lost my job as an editor. Have trouble reading screen. Can no longer read books or wear contacts, so vision is bad. Also suffering from severe hormonal depression and nonstop hot-cold flashes. Anyone else with these problems? Do hormones help or make eyes worse as I have read?

Unable to tolerate light or wind. Without income am giving up hope. Please help. Afraid I have no future and am ready to give up completely.

Pony

[Rebecca Petris]

Anyone else just beginning perimenopause and having a sudden onset of servere dry eye? Punctal plugs, drops, Restatsis, TheraLife, flax oil no help. Have lost my job as an editor. Have trouble reading screen. Can no longer read books or wear contacts, so vision is bad. Also suffering from severe hormonal depression and nonstop hot-cold flashes. Anyone else with these problems? Do hormones help or make eyes worse as I have read?

Unable to tolerate light or wind. Without income am giving up hope. Please help. Afraid I have no future and am ready to give up completely.

Pony

Dear Pony,

You are DEFINITELY not alone in this and you will make it through. I haven't been through your specific situation but others I know have. If you can, search our bulletin board on the term "menopause" and you may find some of the posts - particularly about sudden, intense hormonal swings and the havoc they can play on the eyes. If the computer is just too hard right now let me know and I'll print some things to send you.

You're obviously in a lot of distress so I'd focus on getting pain under control and addressing depression, then seeking better medical care. In terms of pain control, some suggestions that come to mind:

• wraparound eyewear: Not necessarily elegant but this will give you the most 'bang for your buck' in dealing with photophobia (light sensitivity) and difficulty reading. Can be anything from manually fitting foam to your glasses, to the high-end Panoptx or other sports eyewear with foam linings popular with patients here. Check out the eyewear page.
• warm compresses: Relieves pain and improves MG function. Check out the compresses page
• cool compresses or ice
• our in-house eyedrops (they have helped many desperate patients - not everybody, but worth a try)
• naps
• some form of eye cover at night

Please hang in there and again, know that you are not alone.

[kitty]

My DES hit with perimenopause. HRT can make DES worse. Do a google search for HRT Dry Eye and you will get hits. Here is just one:
HRT and DES
..those who use HRT, particularly estrogen alone, are at increased risk of dry eye syndrome....

This would be a good question to pose to Dr. Latkany!

[Pony]

Thank you both for answering.

Does DES ever get better when the hormonal situation stabilizes? If it's this bad at 44, how do i manage it for maybe decades? Does anyone ever manage to wear contacts agian? I am really struggling with glasses. Will I ever be able to read a book again? And what alternative perimenopause treatments have others tried? Any job ideas for visually impaired editor with tons of experience? I'm in a panic because hospital bills are piling up and money isn't coming in. How do the rest of you cope?

Pony

[kitty]

Have you looked into software for the blind, that reads the typewritten text? That might be a way for you to continue working. You might want to contact your local visually disabled services and see what they can suggest. When I was first diagnosed, my fear was not being able to work as my two jobs are entirely computer related. A friend made that suggestion, software for the blind. Fortunately, with time and plugs, I am managing to get through each day. I take lots of breaks and try to change tasks so I am not staring at the screen all day. I bought a 15-minute timer that I set to remind me to get up and stretch and do something different. I gave up caffeine and most alcohol, and I drink lots of water. I can't answer all of your questions about what happens after we hit menopause, but based on what I have read, it does not look good for us. We need to try to manage our DES the best we can.

[ziggy]

Hrt

I had similar problems at age 45...Doc put me on low dose brth control pills...(which I had not taken for years as had tubal) WOW ..what a difference...10 years later..I now use bioidentical hormone replacement creme..obtained by prescription thru Women's Internation Pharmacy in Madison Wisc...I have eye problems due numerous numerous years of contact lens wear..but the depression/hot flash/etc/etc/is under control...Try to get your depression under control..the motivation to fight everything else comes back..Best of LUCK...

[Eileen]

Pony,
I've been out of town for a few weeks and didn't see your post. I am 43 and have menopause-induced severe dry eye for the past 6 months. I tried restasis but developed severe burning after 4 weeks although I think it was helping.

I am currently using experimental drops called DHEA drops. I'm not sure if these drops are helping as I still have very bad days. I'm on birth control pill as well and I don't think it makes things worse and sure helps with the other symptoms of menopause.

I wear panoptyx eyewear during day and tranquil eyes at night. I have all 4 tear ducts plugged which has helped the most.

Depression is very common with both dry eye and menopause and I STRONGLY recommend you see a mental health professional for mood management. I'm on lexapro which helps with depression/anxiety and hasn't seemed to increase the dry eye symptoms.

All in all, it's a day to day struggle but I try to remind myself constantly that things could be worse. Try getting punctal plugs. I'm sure they will help.

Eileen

[shoemama]

My dry eye hit in the fall of 2004. I was perimenopausal and 44 yrs old. I was very much where you are right now, at that time. I also suffered greatly from photophobia when the dry eye hit. I felt incapacitated for a good 4 months. I did the eye drop routine and doxycyline etc. There is hope for getting better, but I found success in small incriments. There was no magic bullet. Using warm compresses, humidifiers and Lid scrubs with the pre packaged "Lid Care" wipes by Novartis seems to keep it more or less under control. I am a contact lens wearer also and am back into lenses. It took a lot of trying to get which lenses which I could wear. it was trial and error. Right now I wear Oasys in my left eye and Night and Day in my right eye. Please do not give up. As I said success comes in small increments, sometimes with one step forward and two back.

[MJ]

Hi, Pony. It's nice to meet you.

Taking care of our eyes from the inside out is as important as the treatments we do for the outside of our eyes. Sometimes we forget that. But we have to take care of our whole body.

If your problems started along with perimenopause then you might benefit from reading What Your Doctor May Not Tell You About Premenopause. Or What Your Doctor May Not Tell You About Menopause. These books are by Dr. John Lee. (Or there are several websites where you can go and get information like emerita.com ) The books by Dr. Lee have information about taking natural hormones as opposed to pharmaceutical hormones. They also talk about your body as a whole and how stress and chemicals affect you. You might be a candidate for taking natural progesterone at this point.

Also, sometimes when hard things happen in our lives we eat poorly. Remember to give your body the nutrition that it needs right now. We really are what we eat and your dry eyes need all the nutrition they can get right now. Also, take the time to nurture yourself ... even if it's just a long soak in the tub. You have to combat all the stress that's in your life right now with some sort of peace or the stress will overwhelm you. And take some time and browse all the different threads here ... there's some really great advice. And keep posting to let us know how you're doing.

I wish you all the best! Meledie

[MJ]

Afraid I have no future and am ready to give up completely.

Pony

Pony, I reread this and I could feel the heartbreak in it. Do you have family or someone in your life to lean on right now? Someone to help you get through?


mj

[laine]

Message for Pony

Hi Pony,
I am so sorry to hear that you are feeling so badly. I am 37 and have been suffering from severe dry eyes for about 6 years now. I have also had problems with hormonal imbalance for many years (endometriosis, PMS etc). Anyway, I started on natural progesterone cream about a year ago and it has helped control my endo and pms and mood swings. I no longer need to get yearly surgery to clean up the endo. I think that it may have helped somewhat with my eye pain, some months are better than others. You might find that it helps you.
I too am not able to work because of this and am on disability.
Some things that help to ease the pain of dry eyes for me are:
1/Wraparound 'Bolle' Rose tinted sunglasses ( I wear them all the time, took me a long time to not feel self conscious but am starting to just accept the fact that I would not be able to leave the house without them). Some people really like Panoptx as they have the foam back to them. I am saving up to buy a pair for myself.
2/I have a pair of biking goggles with foam backing that I wear in the house for computer work and tv or just when eyes are super dry and burning.
3/'BionTears' eyedrops by Alcon are very soothing.
4/Warm mist humidifier running in bedroom at night.
5/Nice steamy warm/not too hot shower helps moisturize and soothe sore eyes.
6/Heatpacks wrapped in flannel before bedtime.
7/Clean lashline with lightly salted warm water, use q-tips to clean and I only use a few grains of salt otherwise it can be too drying.
8/Try to sleep as well as I can. Super dark room and wear dark eyecovers in bed and earplugs.
9/Exercise is really important for me. I love to bike. Have an indoor bike for rainy weather.
10/Deep Relaxation-breathing from lower abdomen.
11/Eat healthy food and take my fish oils (not sure if they help).
12/Watch comedies
13/Listen to audio books for when eyes are too painful for tv.
14/I wear cold packs to watch tv if eyes are aching (the kind that you chill in the fridge and have holes cut out, for depuffing eyes).

I struggle with this condition and the pain that goes along with it on a daily basis. I can't give you a cure (god knows I wish I could) but I hope that the above with help you cope with it. My thoughts are with you and I wish you much luck in your quest for health.

[LiliS]

yes,i had / still have the same problems...even i.,m in menopause now( 58 years) ,i decided to make HRT with estrogen patches and maybe a little amount of testosteron gel ( after i checked my hormones levels! ,those 2 hormones were very low,progesteron too high! ) .Hormonal imbalance in perimenopase and menopause are responsible for many case of dry eyes and they are not diagnosed properly...so i advice yupu a find a good gynecologist or endocrinologist ....eye doctors don,t know and don,t care about this stuff...

[tired_eyes]

Hi Pony, if you've lost your job, did you also lose your insurance? The first thing you need to do is to get help with your depression (I should know - I've been there). There are low cost to free options. Try a community mental health center or a training clinic. Once you have that under control, then it's easier to address everything else.

I started having hot flashes when I was 35. My doctor did all the tests to check my hormone levels and everything came back normal. She told me I wasn't suffering perimenopause, so it must be anxiety. She referred me to a psychologist. The psychologist helped me with my anxiety and depression, but I was still getting hot flashes. Finally, a woman who went through menopause told me about the supplement - black cohash. I tried it and it's helped my hotflashes, most of the time.

Your post has been making me wonder if perimenopause has been causing my problems. Now, I'm going to look in to that.

Are you visually impaired, because you can't wear your contacts and having trouble wearing your eye glasses? If you could fix the problem with eye glasses, would you be able to read a book and get another job as an editor. Maybe some of the eye wear that I've seen in this forum's store could help. Here is also information from this forum's website regarding reaching the end of the line of things to try: scleral lenses

Hang in there, please.

[jennifermd2015]

When I read things like this I really worry. I'm wondering how things turned out for Pony and if she lives in the US was she able to file for disability to cover some of her costs? If you can file for disability for things like general anxiety then you should be able to get some sort of support for things that prevent you from holding a job. I'm just curious if anyone else has had this experience and how they handled it.

[Maria3667]

I'm also an editor and was hit by Sjogren's around the age of 30. I recognize all the symptoms Pony has described. They only way to fight it is - in my humble opinion - to try every option, medication and aid available. It bought me back from 'the living dead', so to speak. At this moment I'm 47 and perimenopausal, so I don't know if going through menopause will make the symptoms worse. Below is a short list of improvements.

Against dry eyes & mouth:
* 8 x 2.5 mg generic pilocarpine tablets
* low dose pregnenolone (7.5 mg)
* a drop of bio-identical testosterone
* 3 mg Boron
* several fatty acids
* Zinc, vitamine B & C, magnesium, potassium

Against debilating fatigue:
* 120 mg natural thyroid hormones.

Against anxiety/depression:
* low dose Seroquel (25mg) and 1 Klonopin before sleep.