Abstract
Pregnancy is characterized by many significant changes in a woman’s body which helps develop the fetus optimally. During pregnancy, there is marked maternal endocrine upregulation, hormonal profile modifications and interactions leading to dry eyes. Pregnancy causes most parts of a woman’s body to change, and the eyes are no exception. Dry eye disease is a common pregnancy problem that usually begins towards the end of the first trimester. Since, there is a dearth of literature on dry eye disease during pregnancy in Nepal, a study was conducted to estimate the prevalence of dry eyes disease among pregnant women and to find its association with socio-demographic characteristics and their gestation period, at Nepal Medical College Teaching Hospital. A total of 84 pregnant women in different trimesters volunteered for this study. The upper and lower limits for estimated mean age were 26.67 years to 25.03 years at 95% confidence level. The prevalence of dry eyes was 89.3% by tear break up time test and 27.4% by Schirmer’s test respectively. The association between gestational age and dry eyes by Schirmer’s test was statistically significant.
Highlights
Pregnancy is characterized by many significant changes in a woman’s body which helps develop the foetus optimally
There is marked maternal endocrine upregulation, hormonal profile modifications and interactions.[1]. These are required for appropriate anatomical and physiological adaptations needed for optimal fetal development, nourishment and smooth delivery at term.[2]
A total of 84 women in all trimesters of pregnancy participated in this study
Summary
Pregnancy is characterized by many significant changes in a woman’s body which helps develop the foetus optimally. There is marked maternal endocrine upregulation, hormonal profile modifications and interactions.[1] These are required for appropriate anatomical and physiological adaptations needed for optimal fetal development, nourishment and smooth delivery at term.[2] the physiological effects of these hormones often go beyond the reproductive system and affect other organs including eye and its adnexae.[3] In the eye, all structures could be affected ranging from anterior segment to the posterior segment.[4,5] In the anterior segment, tear film and intraocular pressure are often affected. While the intraocular pressure response to pregnancy is usually hypotensive, the accompanied changes in lacrimal function usually leads to dry eyes.[6,7] A higher prevalence of dry eye has been reported in human and experimental studies during pregnancy.[6,7]
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