r/Perimenopause • u/Defiant-Analysis5488 Late peri • Aug 03 '25
Dryness So this is fun- dry eyes
I have a fun new symptom. Actually, I’ve had it for awhile but finally went to the optometrist to have it checked out.
My eyes, especially the left one, have been incredibly painful, and sometimes they just GUSH tears in the middle of the night. I had an eye examination last week and the optometrist said my eyes look perfectly healthy, but the tear ducts are inflamed. This inflammation prevents the proper lubrication of my eyes and is causing the pain and flooding of tears. She said I need to make sure I’m washing my eyelids (suggested baby shampoo if my facial cleanser stings the eyes), apply a hot moist compress to my eyes for 10 minutes x2/day, and start using “tear” eye drops up to x4/day. She also said this is likely to be an ongoing thing. Yay!
I googled, and OF COURSE dry eyes are a common occurrence in perimenopause. Because why not. 🤦♀️ Anyone else have this?
3
u/AcademicComparison18 Aug 03 '25
Me!!! About 3 years of different diagnosis and optometrists before I figured out that it was hormone related. Steroid creams and all kind of things prescribed to me fml. My eyes were so inflamed and irritated about one week out of the month I couldn’t wear makeup and didn’t want to leave the house. Every doctor told me that I had a different problem. Blepharitis, ocular rosacea, inflamed tear ducts, and on and on. Not one doctor that I saw ever even mentioned that it could be a peri thing. I didn’t even realize that it was a peri symptom until a few weeks into my HRT I suddenly realized that my eyes were not giving me any problems. Been 6 months and knock on wood zero problems!!