214 - Dry eyes and menopause: what’s the link?

The Dr Louise Newson Podcast

Dr Louise Newson

Health & Fitness, Mental Health, Medicine

4.8 • 798 Ratings

🗓️ 25 July 2023

⏱️ 29 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

Noticed that your eyes are feeling drier, grittier or even more watery lately? It could be dry eye syndrome. July marks Dry Eye Awareness Month, and what you may not know is dry eyes can be a hidden symptom of menopause. In fact, one in four of the nearly 6,000 women surveyed ahead of the release of Dr Louise’s book, the Definitive Guide to the Perimenopause and Menopause, said they experienced dry eyes during the menopause. Joining Dr Louise on this week’s podcast is Maria McGoldrick, a clinical performance consultant for Specsavers who is based in Scotland. Maria, who is an optometrist with 13 years’ experience, gives us the lowdown on the typical symptoms of dry eyes and treatments that can help. Maria’s top three tips to optimise your eye health: Have a regular eye test, ideally once every two years. If you suspect you may have dry eyes, make an appointment with an optometrist so this can be assessed and a treatment plan devised. If you are perimenopausal or menopausal and have an eye appointment coming up, mention this to your optometrist. This will help them support you and make the right treatment plan for you.

Transcript

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0:00.0	Hello, I'm Dr Louise Newsome. I'm a GP and menopause specialist, and I'm also the founder of the Newsome Health Menopause and wellbeing centre here in Stratford-Pon-Avon.
0:21.6	I'm also the founder of the free Balance app.
0:25.6	Each week on my podcast, join me and my special guests where we discuss all things perimenopause and menopause.
0:32.6	We talk about the latest research, bust myths on menopause symptoms and treatments,
0:38.2	and often share moving and always inspirational personal stories.
0:43.7	This podcast is brought to you by the Newsome Health Group,
0:46.9	which has clinics across the UK dedicated to providing individualised perimenopause and menopause care for all women.
1:02.4	So today on the podcast I've got someone with me called Maria McCaldrick and she is an optometrist
1:08.8	and works at speck sabers.
1:13.1	And we're going to talk about eyes, actually.
1:17.7	And for those of you that don't think the menopause is anything to do with eyes,
1:19.3	you'll be mistaken, actually.
1:24.3	Because we know that our hormones, estrogen, testosterone, progesterone,
1:25.6	actually go all over our body.
1:27.9	They go into our bloodstream and they go to every single cell. And obviously, we've got lots of cells in our eyes. So dry eyes is actually a very
1:34.0	common symptom of the menopause. So we want to talk about it today and hopefully educate you. So
1:40.3	welcome, Maria. Thanks for joining me today. Thank you for having a lot of privilege.
1:44.5	Oh, so tell me a bit about you.
1:46.8	An optometrist, what does that mean for those people that aren't quite sure?
1:50.6	Yes, so I'm an optometrist and I have been qualified for over 13 years now.
1:55.3	I'm really an optometrist.
1:56.7	I think often we think about the optometrist as somebody we go to see about glasses.
	...

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