Hormones have a bad image. They are often mentioned with a negative overtone, being cited as the cause of some sort of trouble related to physical changes.
This is very unfair, because they spend the vast majority of their time doing simple tasks that help us. Hormones are the messengers of the body, traveling around, telling different parts what they should be doing. They help with growth, sleep and a whole host of other functions.
Hormones are active throughout our life but can be more noticeable in teenage years, when the body is moving into adulthood, and as we enter old age when much of the adult work is done, and things are winding down.
What Does Biological sex Have to do With it?
Hormonal changes affect vision, and they can do it in various ways. Perhaps puzzlingly, the sex hormones oestrogen, progesterone and testosterone can have an effect on something as seemingly unrelated as the moisture of our eyes, because they can affect tear production.
On a more serious note, hormones can contribute negatively to such conditions as age-related macular degeneration and glaucoma. Testosterone levels have been linked with diseases of the retina.
For women, the use of birth control, and hormone replacement therapy later in life, can impact the body’s natural hormone productions and potentially cause issues.
It is clear then that we have to be aware of changes, try to ascertain the causes and regulate our hormones. Like so many medical matters, though, you don’t have to become an expert; you just have to find someone who is and seek advice from them.
Your doctor is an allrounder who is called upon to give an opinion on why this or that is affecting you in a negative way, and often they will refer you to someone in another branch of medicine to look at the issue through more specialised eyes.
An optometrist is your first port of call for any specialist eye-related matters and if it is suspected that hormones are affecting your vision, your optometrist will be able to shed further light on the subject and recommend treatment.
When it is More Than Just a Question of Glasses and Lenses
When an optometrist carries out a detailed eye examination, they are not just looking at how well you can see from a mechanical point of view, but also how healthy your eyes are in general. They are looking deep into the eye, not just at your natural lenses but the tissue all around. They can see signs of diabetes and all kinds of deterioration.
That is a further reason why it is good to have regular checkups with an optometrist. Just in case something is happening in there that’s related to hormonal changes.
If you’ve noticed any changes in your eyesight recently, book a vision test with the team here at Microprism Vision and we’ll make sure there’s not an underlying hormonal cause.
