Hormone therapy may have beneficial ocular effects

Women on hormone replacement therapy may coincidentally reap some ocular benefits, according to an Italian study.

Pietro Affinito, MD, and colleagues at the University of Naples performed the study to evaluate the effects of hormone replacement therapy (HRT) on climacteric ocular complaints. The researchers randomized a group of 50 healthy women, half to HRT and half to no treatment to serve as a control group. The mean age of the women was 53 years, and all were at least 1 year past spontaneous menopause. All patients had eye examinations at baseline and after 3 and 6 months.

No significant differences were observed between the two groups at baseline. After 3 and 6 months of treatment, a significant reduction was seen in the percentage of women in the HRT group who were affected by ocular symptoms and the severity of those symptoms. Women on HRT experienced a significant increase in both basal and stimulated lacrimal secretion after 3 months of therapy compared with baseline. After 3 months of therapy, a significant decrease in intraocular pressure was seen in the HRT group (P < .01). A slight, nonsignificant increase in corneal thickness was observed at both 3 and 6 months in the HRT group in comparison to baseline.

The study is published in Menopause.