Which Eye Drops Are Safe During Pregnancy?

Which Eye Drops Are Safe During Pregnancy
Sodium cromoglicate eye drops and breastfeeding – You can use sodium cromoglicate eye drops while breastfeeding. It’s likely that only tiny amounts will get into your breast milk which would not be expected to cause any problems in your baby. If you notice that your baby is not feeding as well as usual, or you have any other concerns about your baby, talk to your health visitor, midwife, pharmacist or doctor as soon as possible.
View complete answer

Contents

What eye drops can you use while pregnant?

– The following strategies may help prevent dry eyes during pregnancy:

drinking plenty of water, especially if you’re vomitingeating a balanced diet with plenty of fresh fruit and vegetablestaking a prenatal vitamin (and other supplements if recommended by your OB-GYN or midwife)using a humidifier at home to get rid of dry airkeeping plants in your home to help keep the air moist and freshwearing sunglasses when you’re outdoors to protect your eyes from the sun and windavoiding staring at screens too long

And try these three home remedies to help soothe dry eye symptoms:

Massage your eyes. Wash your hands and gently massage your closed eyelids by rolling your fingertip over them. This can help encourage more tear production in your eyes. Wash your eyes. Cool boiled water to make your own sterile solution to clean your eyes. Soak a cotton pad in the water and dab it over your closed eyes. Start in the corner of your eyes and go over both your upper and lower eyelids. (This is also good practice for when you have to clean your baby’s eyes!) Mist your face. Make a natural face mist to moisten your face and eyes. Combine sterile water and pure rose water. Keep it in a spray bottle and mist your face whenever you need to freshen up dry, tired eyes. This solution smells so good, it’ll double as a natural perfume!

Ask your healthcare provider about the best eye drops to use to prevent dry eyes during pregnancy. Most lubricating or moisturizing eye drops (also called artificial tears) are safe to use while you’re pregnant. Make sure you don’t use any kind of medicated eye drops.
View complete answer

Are Lubricating eye drops safe during pregnancy?

The good news is that lubricating or rewetting eye drops are perfectly safe to use while you are pregnant or nursing. They can lessen the discomfort of dry eyes. It’s also good to know that contact lenses, contact lens solutions and enzymatic cleaners are safe to use while you are pregnant.
View complete answer

How can I treat an eye infection while pregnant?

Antibiotics for the Eyes During Pregnancy For most eye infections, an eye doctor will prescribe either antibiotic eye drops or an antibiotic to be taken by mouth. If pregnant, a common antibiotic eye drop will be azithromycin, or an ointment of erythromycin could be used.
View complete answer

How can I make my unborn baby’s eyes blue?

Can I influence the colour of my baby’s eyes? – Your baby’s eye colour is determined largely by genetics, Nothing you do or eat in pregnancy, or indeed after your baby is born, can change it. If both you and your partner have the same eye colour, there is a high chance your baby will too – but it’s not a certainty.
View complete answer

What causes eye problems during pregnancy?

What causes blurred vision during pregnancy? – Hormones that support your growing baby cause fluid retention. This extra fluid changes your eyes in ways that may result in blurry vision. They include:

Changes to the shape or thickness of your corneas, Decreased tear production, which impacts the quality of your vision. Increased pressure inside your eye (intraocular pressure).

View complete answer

Is dry eye common in pregnancy?

If the eyes do not produce enough tears or cannot maintain a healthy moisture layer, a person may have dry eye syndrome. People may experience dry eyes during pregnancy due to fluctuating hormone levels. The overall rate of dry eyes is higher during pregnancy.
View complete answer

Can eye infection affect unborn baby?

– Pink eye during pregnancy is a huge annoyance, but it’s not dangerous to you or your baby. That said, talk with your doctor or eye doctor for pink eye unless you know for sure it’s caused by allergies. Make sure to let them know you’re pregnant so they can recommend safe treatment options.
View complete answer

Are eye infections common in pregnancy?

Eye floaters- – Eye floaters are small black spots or rings that form in your field of vision. These develop in the vitreous in the back of your eye. This vitreous is gel-like, and as we age, it becomes more watery, which causes these floaters. Eye floaters during pregnancy are caused due to the increased water retention in the eyes that is caused due to hormonal changes.
View complete answer

Can eye infection hurt baby?

Eye infections that occur after the newborn period: – These infections may be unsightly, because of the redness of the eye and the yellow discharge that usually accompanies them, and they may make your child uncomfortable, but they are rarely serious.
View complete answer

Which parent determines eye color of baby?

BLUE – 6.25% Which Eye Drops Are Safe During Pregnancy Baby Eye Color Calculator for Grandparents Congratulations on becoming a grandparent! Watching your child have their own baby is one of the most magical feelings in the world. It’s time to get excited about the baby’s personality and features! Are you excited to see what they’ll inherit from you? Do you hope they’ll have the same eye color as you? With our easy-to-use baby eye color calculator for grandparents, you can help your kids get ready for their newborn by better predicting what the baby’s eye color might be.

What Determines a Baby’s Eye Color? Your grandchildren inherit their eye colors from your child and their partner. It’s a combination of mom and dad’s eye colors. Generally, the color is determined by this mix and whether the genes are dominant or recessive. Since the inheritance of eye color is polygenic, eye color traits are influenced not only by one gene but by various genes.

Simply put, what determines a baby’s eye color includes: -Parents’ eye colors -If parents are homozygous or heterozygous dominant for a specific color -If parents’ eye colors are dominant or recessive However, since you played a part in the color of your own child’s eyes, it technically has an impact on what eye color the newborn baby may have.
View complete answer

Which parent determines eye color?

Which parent gives you the most dominant genes? Except for a few special cases (see below), it doesn’t really matter which parent gave you which gene. If a gene version is dominant, it will dominate whether it came from mom or dad. Your chances of getting a dominant trait don’t depend on which parent it came from.

  1. If mom gives you a dominant brown eye version of an eye color gene, odds are you’ll end up with brown eyes.
  2. Same thing if dad passes the same gene.
  3. In neither case would you have higher odds for getting brown eyes.
  4. Now that isn’t to say that if mom has brown eyes then all her kids will too.
  5. They could end up with the other parent’s recessive blue or green eyes.

Or an eye color that neither parent has! This is how brown-eyed parents end up with a blue-eyed child. Or how two parents who don’t have red hair have a redheaded baby. As you can see, genetics is a complicated business. But one thing we do know.a child isn’t more likely to favor one parent over the other.

Which traits you get depend on the combination of genes you get from both parents. What I’ll do for the rest of the answer is explain a bit about how genes work. Then I’ll focus on some situations where the parents do matter. As you’ll see, this is usually when a trait is on the X chromosome. Let’s say that a child has a mom with brown eyes and dad with blue eyes.

In general, brown eyes are dominant to blue. That means that if you have the DNA for both brown and blue, you’ll have brown eyes. (I’ll also note that it’s more complicated than I’m about to describe here. But the general pattern holds true, where darker eyes are more dominant than lighter ones.) Since brown eyes are dominant, there are two possibilities for mom.

  1. She can have two copies of the brown version of an eye color gene (” BB “, as geneticists like to say).
  2. Or she could have one brown ( B ) and one blue ( b ) version of that gene, or ” Bb “.
  3. To make things easier, we will say that she is BB (both genes are the brown version).
  4. Since the dad has blue eyes, he has two copies of the recessive blue version.

He is bb, Each parent will pass one copy of their eye color gene to their child. In this case, the mom will always pass B and the dad will always pass b, This means all of their kids will be Bb and have brown eyes. Each child will show the mom’s dominant trait.

  1. Now if we flip things around where the father has two brown versions ( BB ) and the mom has two blue ones ( bb ), the child will still end up Bb and having brown eyes.
  2. It doesn’t matter if B came from mom or dad.
  3. It only mattered that the child got a B,
  4. For most traits it doesn’t matter which side of the family it came from.

I don’t want you to think that if one parent shows the dominant trait, all their children will too. They may not. Let me give another eye color example to show you what I mean. Imagine a mom with one version of the brown and one version of the blue eye color gene.

She is Bb and has brown eyes. Dad is bb and has blue eyes. These are the same eye colors that the parents had in the first example. But the result could turn out very differently. In this example, the kids would each have a 50% chance of having mom’s brown eyes and a 50% chance of having dad’s blue eyes.

(This is because mom has a 50% chance of passing her B and a 50% chance of passing her b,) They could end up with mom’s dominant trait or dad’s recessive one. Which one is a simple matter of chance. And if we take a Bb dad (brown eyes) and a bb mother (blue eyes), there is still a 50% chance for the child to have blue eyes.

Again it didn’t matter which parent gave which gene version. What was important is that these two gene versions were involved. Of course, eye color is harder to predict than I’m describing here. There’s more than just one gene that affects what color eyes you’ll have! But it’s still a useful example. This is true for many, many traits besides eye color.

But not all of them. Sometimes it matters whether your mom or dad has a dominant trait. Through our discussion so far, you may have picked up on the fact that we have two copies of our genes – one from mom and one from dad. But this isn’t true for every gene.

Whether you are a boy or a girl mostly depends on whether you have an X and a Y chromosome or two X’s. If you have an X and a Y, then you are usually a boy. If you have two X’s, then you are usually a girl. This matters for our discussion because it means that girls (and so moms) have two copies of all the genes on the X chromosome while boys (and dads) have just one.

The genes on mom’s X chromosome will dominate for her sons whether they are dominant or recessive. Let’s look at color blindness as an example to figure out why. Imagine that mom is colorblind. Since being colorblind is recessive, she has two copies of the color blind version of the gene (c).

Geneticists say she is Xc Xc because the recessive version is on the X chromosome. Red-green colorblindness (II) is one of the few traits where it matters which parent the gene came from. In our case, dad isn’t color blind. Since he has just one X chromosome, he has a single copy of the version of the gene that lets him tell red from green.

He is XC Y, (The XC means he has the dominant version of the color vision gene on his X. The Y has no color vision gene on it and so is here as a marker.) OK, now what happens when these two parents have sons? They are all colorblind like their mother.

  1. Her recessive trait dominates! Let me take you through how this happened.
  2. Since the child is a boy, we know dad passed his Y (otherwise the child would be a girl).
  3. This doesn’t contribute any color vision genes.
  4. Mom will pass one of her Xc’s to her son.
  5. The son now has an Xc and a Y.
  6. He has no dominant color vision gene version to overcome his color blind version and so is color blind like his mother.
You might be interested:  How To Stay Fit During Pregnancy?

Every son will have that trait. Colorblindness is one of a few special traits where it matters which parent a gene copy came from. For most traits it doesn’t matter. What matters is the combination of genes you get no matter the source. : Which parent gives you the most dominant genes?
View complete answer

What determines baby’s eye color?

Eye color changes over time – Iris color, just like hair and skin color, depends on a protein called melanin. We have specialized cells in our bodies called melanocytes whose job it is to go around secreting melanin. Over time, if melanocytes only secrete a little melanin, your baby will have blue eyes.

  1. If they secrete a bit more, his eyes will look green or hazel,
  2. When melanocytes get really busy, eyes look brown (the most common eye color), and in some cases they may appear very dark indeed.
  3. Because it takes about a year for melanocytes to finish their work it can be a dicey business calling eye color before the baby’s first birthday.

The color change does slow down some after the first 6 months of life, but there can be plenty of change left at that point. Eye color is a genetic property, but it’s not quite as cut-and-dried as you might have learned in biology class.

Two blue-eyed parents are very likely to have a blue-eyed child, but it won’t happen every single time. Two brown-eyed parents are likely (but not guaranteed) to have a child with brown eyes. If you notice one of the grandparents has blue eyes, the chances of having a blue-eyed baby go up a bit. If one parent has brown eyes and the other has blue eyes, odds are about even on eye color. If your child has one brown eye and one blue eye, bring it to your doctor’s attention; he probably has a rare genetic condition called Waardenburg syndrome.

View complete answer

What are pregnancy eyes?

How Pregnancy Affects Women’s Eyes – If you’re expecting a little bundle of joy, you might be starting to realize that pregnancy symptoms seem to affect your entire body, including your eyes. Pregnancy can cause the following eye changes: Blurry Vision If your vision does not seem as sharp as it was before you became pregnant, you might be right.

Some women actually develop blurry vision during pregnancy. Blurry vision may be caused by an increase in fluid retention. According to the American Pregnancy Association, women produce about 50 percent more fluid and blood during pregnancy. The extra fluid is good for your baby, but not so great for expectant moms.

The fluid may cause common pregnancy symptoms, such as swollen ankles. The water retention can also lead to increased corneal thickness, which might cause your vision to become blurry. Usually, vision will return to normal a few months after delivery. Dry Eyes According to American Academy of Ophthalmology, pregnancy can cause dry eye syndrome in some women.

Dry eyes during pregnancy are probably the result of changes in hormones, which causes a decrease in tear production. The decrease in tears leads to eye dryness and discomfort. Symptoms may include a gritty feeling in the eyes, irritation, and a burning sensation. The good news is dry eye syndrome should resolve a few weeks after you have your baby.

Corneal Sensitivity Pregnancy hormones may cause mild corneal edema, which can lead to a slight increase in corneal thickness. The increased thickness may cause the cornea to become irritated a little more easily. Irritation and sensitivity may be more noticeable in the third trimester.

While sensitivity is usually not severe, some women may find wearing contact lenses is uncomfortable. Puffy Eyes Bloating and puffiness is common in pregnancy, and it can even affect your eyes. It’s common for women to develop puffiness around their eyes or on the eyelids. Once again, you can blame it on the hormonal changes that occur when you’re expecting.

If the swelling is severe and is accompanied by symptoms of preeclampsia, such as a severe headache, contact your healthcare provider. In most cases, mild eye puffiness may be annoying, but is usually nothing to worry about.
View complete answer

When does pregnancy affect your eyesight?

Preeclampsia or eclampsia – Some vision changes during pregnancy, including blurry vision, double vision, and temporary loss of vision, can be symptoms of preeclampsia or eclampsia. Preeclampsia is a potentially dangerous pregnancy complication that involves high blood pressure and develops in the last 20 weeks of pregnancy.

  1. Eclampsia is a complication of preeclampsia.
  2. Changes in vision during pregnancy are one of the most serious signs of preeclampsia.
  3. About 25 percent of women with severe preeclampsia and 50 percent of women with eclampsia experience visual symptoms, which tend to worsen as the conditions become more severe.

Additional signs or symptoms of preeclampsia include headaches, new swelling of your legs, hands, and/ or face, new nausea or vomiting, pain in your right upper abdomen. If you think you might have preeclampsia, call your doctor or head to the hospital right away, as it requires prompt treatment.
View complete answer

Does pregnancy increase eye pressure?

Objective To better understand the course of glaucoma during pregnancy in women with preexisting disease. Methods Retrospective case series of 28 eyes of 15 women with glaucoma followed up during pregnancy. Data were analyzed for age, race/ethnicity, medications, glaucoma type, intraocular pressure (IOP), and visual fields before, during, and after pregnancy.

Results In 16 (57.1%) of 28 eyes, IOP was stable during pregnancy, with no progression of visual field loss. In 5 eyes (17.9%), visual field loss progressed during pregnancy, while IOP remained stable or increased. In 5 eyes (17.9%), IOP increased during pregnancy, but there was no progression of visual field loss.

In 2 eyes (7.1%), data were inconclusive because of medication noncompliance and preexisting severe visual field loss. Glaucoma medications were used by 13 of 15 patients to control glaucoma during pregnancy. The classes of medications used most frequently were β-blockers, α 2 -adrenergic agents, cholinergic agents, and topical carbonic anhydrase inhibitors.

  1. Conclusions The course of glaucoma during pregnancy is variable, and women must be monitored closely during pregnancy.
  2. Medications may be necessary to control IOP and to prevent vision loss during pregnancy.
  3. It is recognized that intraocular pressure (IOP) decreases during pregnancy.1 – 10 Investigations in healthy subjects have shown a statistically significant decrease in IOP during all trimesters of pregnancy compared with nonpregnant control subjects.
You might be interested:  How To Check Pregnancy By Kit?

Intraocular pressure declines as pregnancy progresses, with a statistically significant decrease in IOP from the first to the third trimesters.5, 7, 8 During pregnancy women with ocular hypertension demonstrate a similar decrease in IOP that becomes notable during the second trimester and decreases further with advancing pregnancy.5 These findings have been used to support the hypothesis by Imre 1 that preexisting glaucoma improves and that few cases of glaucoma are diagnosed during pregnancy.

  1. However, case reports 11, 12 describe women with glaucoma whose IOP was difficult to control during pregnancy, despite medical and surgical intervention.
  2. To our knowledge, no larger studies are present in the literature regarding the effect of pregnancy on glaucoma.
  3. In addition, in a recent survey of ophthalmologists in the United Kingdom, 26% of responders had treated patients with glaucoma during pregnancy.13 However, 31% of ophthalmologists in the study were unsure how to treat a patient whose IOP was at a level likely to cause disease progression during pregnancy.

We compiled a series of women with glaucoma who were followed up before, during, and after pregnancy. This series of patients should shed light on the natural course of glaucoma during pregnancy. The medical records of 15 patients with glaucoma who were followed up by us during pregnancy were reviewed retrospectively.

Cases were identified by recall of the attending physician. Institutional review board approval was obtained for the study. Data were analyzed for age, race/ethnicity, medications, glaucoma type, IOP, and visual fields before, during, and after pregnancy. Some patients had multiple pregnancies. Data from only 1 pregnancy for each patient were included.

Attempts were made to include data from the first pregnancy of each patient. When unavailable, data from the earliest pregnancy available were analyzed. In most patients, both eyes were studied, but each eye was treated independently. Two eyes were excluded from the study, including the right eye of patient 10 because of no light perception visual acuity and insufficient data and the left eye of patient 13 because it was unaffected by glaucoma.

Data are expressed as mean ± SD. Attempts were made to examine patients every 3 months during pregnancy or more often as clinically indicated. When multiple IOP readings were recorded in a trimester of pregnancy, the mean IOP is given. Intraocular pressure was measured by applanation tonometry or Tono-Pen tonometer (Medtronic, Jacksonville, Fla) at each visit, except in patients with severe keratopathy, in whom pneumotonometry was performed.

Because of the presence of a keratoprosthesis in the right eye of patient 11, tactile tensions were recorded in this patient. Increased IOP during pregnancy was defined as a change of at least 5 mm Hg in prepregnancy vs pregnancy values. The highest IOP measured during all 3 trimesters of pregnancy was used for this analysis.

  • Eyes with a change in IOP of less than 5 mm Hg, or those with an IOP of less than 18 mm Hg throughout the study, were considered stable.
  • Depending on patient cooperation and the extent of visual field loss, visual field tests were performed using Humphrey or Goldmann visual field machines.
  • Visual field progression was defined by the appearance of a new arcuate defect or nasal step, deepening of existing defects, or increased constriction.

Progression of visual field loss was confirmed on subsequent examinations and was irreversible. Individual case management was determined by each treating physician. Demographic data are given in Table 1, Fifteen women (a total of 28 eyes) were included in the study.

There were equal numbers of right and left eyes. Table 2 lists the surgical and laser procedures before pregnancy for each patient in the study. Every attempt was made to include as much historical data as possible; details of some surgical procedures were unavailable because they occurred many years before pregnancy.

The patients most likely to have had previous surgery included those with the following types of glaucoma: uveitic, aphakic, primary congenital, aniridic, developmental, and angle closure. One patient with juvenile open-angle glaucoma underwent 2 laser trabeculoplasties in an eye before an anticipated pregnancy.

  • Decisions to perform all other prior procedures listed in the table were made independent of pregnancy.
  • Table 3 gives study patient data documenting the mean IOP and number of medications before pregnancy, during each trimester, and post partum.
  • Visual field test results before pregnancy were compared with postpartum results ( Table 3 ).

Visual field progression was confirmed by repeat tests post partum and was irreversible. In 16 (57.1%) of 28 eyes, IOP remained stable with no change in the visual fields. Many of these eyes were maintained on fewer IOP-lowering medications during pregnancy compared with before pregnancy.

  1. In 5 (17.9%) of 28 eyes, visual field loss progressed during pregnancy while IOP remained stable or increased.
  2. In 5 (17.9%) of 28 eyes, IOP increased during pregnancy without progression of visual field loss.
  3. In the remaining 2 eyes (7.1%), data were inconclusive because of medication noncompliance and preexisting severe visual field loss.

Table 4 lists the medications used during pregnancy by the study patients. The most commonly used medications before pregnancy to control IOP included β-blockers, α 2 -adrenergic agents, cholinergic agents, and topical carbonic anhydrase inhibitors. Once the patients became pregnant, there was a general trend to reduce the number of medications, as long as IOP remained under control.

  1. Compared with before pregnancy, the number of patients using β-blockers during pregnancy remained stable.
  2. There was a slight decrease in the number of patients using topical carbonic anhydrase inhibitors and α 2 -adrenergic agents at the beginning of pregnancy, followed by an increase in the number of patients taking these medications by the third trimester.

Patient 9 (in Tables 1, 2, and 3 ), who was taking an oral carbonic anhydrase inhibitor, stopped taking all of her IOP-lowering medications on her own initiative when she learned of her pregnancy. All use of prostaglandin analogue medications was discontinued as early in pregnancy as possible.

Before pregnancy, none of the patients in the study were taking cholinergic agents. During the first trimester, 2 patients began taking pilocarpine hydrochloride, and by the third trimester 3 of 14 women were taking it. All patients taking cholinesterase agents were switched to alternative IOP-lowering medications when the ophthalmologist learned of the pregnancy.

One patient used the α- and β-adrenergic agonist dipivefrin hydrochloride for a short time during the first trimester of pregnancy. There were no adverse effects of medication use during pregnancy observed in the patients or their offspring. All women were instructed to perform punctual occlusion following instillation of topical medications to decrease systemic absorption.

No surgical interventions were undertaken during pregnancy in the women in our study. Four women in our study had subsequent pregnancies; no major differences were noted in IOP control compared with data from earlier pregnancies. It is well documented that IOP decreases during pregnancy in healthy women.

It has been hypothesized that a similar decrease in IOP should be seen during pregnancy in women with preexisting glaucoma. To our knowledge, this is the first case series of women with glaucoma compiled to better understand the course of disease during pregnancy.

In 16 (57.1%) of 28 eyes with glaucoma, there was no increase in IOP and no change in visual fields during pregnancy. Many of these women were maintained on fewer IOP-lowering medications during pregnancy compared with before pregnancy, and no progression of disease was observed. However, in 10 (35.7%) of 28 eyes in our study, there was an increase in IOP or a progression of visual field loss during pregnancy that was confirmed on subsequent testing.

Many of these women required additional medication to control their IOP. Whenever possible, physicians should address glaucoma management options in all women of childbearing age before pregnancy occurs. With proper planning, surgical treatments such as laser trabeculoplasty can be offered in anticipation of decreasing or stopping medication use during pregnancy.

  • It is common for patients to be reluctant to take medication during pregnancy because of potential teratogenic adverse effects.
  • We found an increase in medication noncompliance during pregnancy, with patients 8 and 9 (in Tables 2 and 3 ) discontinuing all medications when they learned of their pregnancy, that resulted in an increase in IOP.

This reinforces the need for good communication between physician and patient to minimize risk to the fetus while preserving vision in the patient. Thirteen of 15 women in our study required medication during pregnancy to control IOP. All topical ophthalmic medication should be considered to have some level of systemic absorption through the nasolacrimal drainage system.14, 15 We instructed all pregnant women to use punctual occlusion after instillation of drops to decrease systemic absorption of medication.

  • All medications are classified for safety during pregnancy.
  • None of the glaucoma medications meet the criteria of pregnancy category A, indicating that controlled studies in women fail to demonstrate a risk to the fetus in the first trimester and that the medications have a low risk for causing fetal harm.

Brimonidine tartrate and dipivefrin are pregnancy category B medications, indicating that animal studies have not demonstrated a risk to the fetus, to our knowledge, but there are no controlled studies in pregnant women, or animal studies that have shown an adverse effect that was not confirmed in pregnant women.

  • Most glaucoma medications, including β-blockers, carbonic anhydrase inhibitors (topical and systemic), prostaglandin analogues, cholinergic agents, anticholinesterases, and apraclonidine hydrochloride, are classified as pregnancy category C medications.
  • This designation indicates that studies in animals have shown adverse effects on the fetus and there are no controlled studies in women, or that studies in women and animals are unavailable.

These medications should be given only if the potential benefit to the pregnant woman justifies the potential risk to the fetus.14 – 16 When selecting IOP-lowering medications for use during pregnancy, our approach is to consider the pregnancy safety categories already described and to work closely with the patient’s obstetrician.

In our experience, obstetricians are most comfortable with the use of β-blockers because this class of medications is used to control hypertension during pregnancy.17 Topical timolol maleate use in a pregnant woman has been associated with fetal bradycardia and arrhythmia.18 We also use brimonidine for IOP control during pregnancy because of its pregnancy category B designation.

Our third alternative for IOP-lowering medication after β-blockers and α 2 -adrenergic agents is topical carbonic anhydrase inhibitors. There are reports in the literature of associations between the use of oral carbonic anhydrase inhibitors and sacrococcygeal teratoma and transient renal tubular acidosis in neonates, 19, 20 although there are no reported cases of adverse effects during pregnancy from topical carbonic anhydrase inhibitors.

You might be interested:  What Skin Care Ingredients To Avoid During Pregnancy?

Historically, the prostaglandin analogues have been avoided during pregnancy because similar agents are used to induce labor. A recent report of 11 women exposed to latanoprost during pregnancy found that there was no evidence of adverse effects on pregnancy or neonatal outcomes due to medication use.21 The use of cholinergic agents has been associated with neonatal hyperthermia, restlessness, seizures, and diaphoresis when given to women who are near term.22 There were no adverse effects from medications used during pregnancy in the patients or their offspring in our study.

There are many mechanisms that have been proposed to explain why IOP decreases during pregnancy in healthy women. Initial theories focused on the hormonal levels that fluctuate during pregnancy, such as estrogen, relaxin, progesterone, and β-human chorionic gonadotrophin.1, 23 – 25 It has been shown that the aqueous humor formation rate does not change during pregnancy but that outflow facility increases during pregnancy, causing a decrease in IOP.24 – 26 In addition, Wilke 27 demonstrated a decrease in episcleral venous pressure during pregnancy.

  • Pregnancy also induces a slight metabolic acidosis that contributes to decreased IOP.3 The decrease in IOP during pregnancy is likely multifactorial, involving hormonal mechanisms and second messenger systems that result in increased outflow facility and in decreased episcleral venous pressure.
  • The limitations of our study are those inherent in a case series performed retrospectively.

Attending physician recall was used to select cases for the study, which may introduce bias. In addition, the cases included represent multiple types of glaucoma with varying degrees of severity that are difficult to compare with each other. However, our case series represents the variety of cases encountered when treating women with glaucoma during pregnancy.

Our objective was to provide as much data as possible from our collective experience, which can be generalized to guide management of future patients. Although most women in the study remained stable during pregnancy, 10 (35.7%) of 28 eyes demonstrated an increase in IOP or a progression of visual field loss.

This study illustrates that some eyes with preexisting glaucoma behave differently during pregnancy than healthy eyes and must be monitored closely. It also emphasizes the importance of discussing glaucoma treatment options with all women of childbearing age before pregnancy begins.

It is often necessary to use medication to control IOP and to prevent vision loss during pregnancy. This should be prescribed in collaboration with obstetricians to ensure the safety of the mother and the fetus. Future research should investigate why some glaucomatous eyes behave differently than healthy eyes and how best to manage these patients’ conditions during pregnancy.

Correspondence: Cynthia L. Grosskreutz, MD, PhD, Massachusetts Eye & Ear Infirmary, Harvard Medical School, 243 Charles St, Boston, MA 02114 ( [email protected] ). Submitted for Publication: August 25, 2005; final revision received January 25, 2006; accepted March 5, 2006.

Financial Disclosure: None reported.1. Imre J Pregnancy and the eye: their endocrinological relations. XV Concilium Ophthalmologicum Egypt 1937;3213- 226 Google Scholar 2. Qureshi IA Intraocular pressure: association with menstrual cycle, pregnancy and menopause in apparently healthy women. Chin J Physiol 1995;38229- 234 PubMed Google Scholar 4.

Weinreb RNLu AKey T Maternal ocular adaptations during pregnancy. Obstet Gynecol Surv 1987;42471- 483 PubMed Google Scholar 5. Qureshi IAXi XRWu XD Intraocular pressure trends in pregnancy and in the third trimester hypertensive patients. Acta Obstet Gynecol Scand 1996;75816- 819 PubMed Google Scholar 6.

Phillips CIGore SM Ocular hypotensive effect of late pregnancy with and without high blood pressure. Br J Ophthalmol 1985;69117- 119 PubMed Google Scholar 7. Qureshi IA Intraocular pressure and pregnancy: a comparison between normal and ocular hypertensive subjects. Arch Med Res 1997;28397- 400 PubMed Google Scholar 8.

Akar YYucel IAkar MEZorlu GAri ES Effect of pregnancy on intraobserver and intertechnique agreement in intraocular pressure measurements. Ophthalmologica 2005;21936- 42 PubMed Google Scholar 9. Kass MASears ML Hormonal regulation of intraocular pressure.

  1. Surv Ophthalmol 1977;22153- 176 PubMed Google Scholar 10.
  2. Qureshi IAXi XRYaqob T The ocular hypotensive effect of late pregnancy is higher in multigravidae than in primigravidae.
  3. Graefes Arch Clin Exp Ophthalmol 2000;23864- 67 PubMed Google Scholar 11.
  4. Wertheim MBroadway DC Cyclodiode laser therapy to control intraocular pressure during pregnancy.

Br J Ophthalmol 2002;861318- 1319 PubMed Google Scholar 12. Johnson SMMaritnez MFreedman S Management of glaucoma in pregnancy and lactation. Surv Ophthalmol 2001;45449- 454 PubMed Google Scholar 13. Vaideanu DFraser S Glaucoma management in pregnancy: a questionnaire survey,

Eye 10.1038/sj.eye.6702193 Google Scholar 14. Kooner KSZimmerman TJ Antiglaucoma therapy during pregnancy: part I. Ann Ophthalmol 1988;20166- 169 PubMed Google Scholar 15. Kooner KSZimmerman TJ Antiglaucoma therapy during pregnancy: part II. Ann Ophthalmol 1988;20208- 211 PubMed Google Scholar 16. Maris PJ JrMandal AKNetland PA Medical therapy of pediatric glaucoma and glaucoma in pregnancy.

Ophthalmol Clin North Am 2005;18461- 468 PubMed Google Scholar 17. Wide-Swensson DMontal SIngemarsson I How Swedish obstetricians manage hypertensive disorders in pregnancy: a questionnaire study. Acta Obstet Gynecol Scand 1994;73619- 624 PubMed Google Scholar 18.

  • Wagenvoort AMvan Vugt JMSobotka Mvan Geijn HP Topical timolol therapy in pregnancy: is it safe for the fetus? Teratology 1998;58258- 262 PubMed Google Scholar 19.
  • Ozawa HAzuma EShindo KHigashigawa MMukouhara RKomada Y Transient renal tubular acidosis in a neonate following transplacental acetazolamide.

Eur J Pediatr 2001;160321- 322 PubMed Google Scholar 20. Worsham F JrBeckham ENMitchell EH Sacrococcygeal teratoma in a neonate. JAMA 1978;240251- 252 PubMed Google Scholar 21. De Santis MLucchese ACarducci B et al. Latanoprost exposure in pregnancy. Am J Ophthalmol 2004;138305- 306 PubMed Google Scholar 22.

Samples JRMeyer BS Use of ophthalmic medications in pregnant and nursing women. Am J Ophthalmol 1988;106616- 623 PubMed Google Scholar 23. Posthumus RG The use and the possibilities of progesterone in the treatment of glaucoma. Ophthalmologica 1952;1242- 25 Google Scholar 24. Ziai NOry SJKhan ARBrubaker RF β-human chorionic gonadotropin, progesterone, and aqueous dynamics during pregnancy.

Arch Ophthalmol 1994;112801- 806 PubMed Google Scholar 25. Paterson GDMiller SJ Hormonal influence in simple glaucoma: a preliminary report. Br J Ophthalmol 1963;47129- 137 PubMed Google Scholar 26. Green KPhillips CICheeks LSlagle T Aqueous humor flow rate and intraocular pressure during and after pregnancy.
View complete answer

What causes itchy eyes during pregnancy?

Itchy or Watery Eyes During Pregnancy What are itchy or watery eyes during pregnancy? Sure, you’re hormonal, but these tears aren’t falling because of that sappy life insurance commercial. Your eyes are itchy and irritated. What gives? What could be causing my itchy or watery eyes? Karen Deighan, MD, FACOG, department chairperson of Obstetrics and Gynecology at Gottlieb Memorial Hospital of Loyola University Health System, says the most common cause of itchy, watery eyes, even during pregnancy, is allergies.

  • But there’s a small chance it’s pregnancy-related.
  • If you’re experiencing a lot of bad swelling late in pregnancy, the extra water retention can make your skin tight all over, and that can make you itchy—eyes included,” she explains.
  • When should I see the doctor about my itchy or watery eyes? While it’s not necessary to run to your doctor, you can call and check to see what allergy meds are okay to use.

How should I treat my itchy or watery eyes during pregnancy? You might be scared to take, but you definitely don’t have to suffer, says Deighan. There are plenty of safe over-the-counter allergy meds that you can take. Please note: The Bump and the materials and information it contains are not intended to, and do not constitute, medical or other health advice or diagnosis and should not be used as such. save article : Itchy or Watery Eyes During Pregnancy
View complete answer

Are eye lubricants safe?

Are Lubricating Eye Drops Safe? – Lubricating eye drops are generally safe to use as often as you need them if they do not have preservatives. Eye drops with preservatives have chemicals that are designed to keep bacteria from growing in the bottles once they are opened.

Many people find that the preservatives irritate their eyes, particularly if they have more severe dry eye. Many eye doctors recommend not using eye drops with preservatives more than four times a day. Preservative-free eye drops have fewer additives. They are usually recommended for people with moderate to severe dry eye.

They are often best for those who use artificial tears more than four times a day. Artificial tears can have side effects, such as blurry vision, It is also possible to have an allergic reaction to the medication. Symptoms can include itchiness, swelling, breathing problems, feeling dizzy, or feeling sick.
View complete answer

Is it safe to use lubricating eye drops everyday?

Is It Risky to Overuse Eye Drops? | Kornmehl Laser Eye Associates Like any medication, eyedrops must be taken as directed. And unless your doctor has instructed you to do so, eyedrops should not be taken on a daily basis for weeks at a time. Eyedrops are meant only as a temporary fix — not a long-term solution.
View complete answer