Menopause news

HRT may help glaucoma.

4 January 2010

Glaucoma is the name given to a group of eye conditions that can affect vision. There are various types of glaucoma but whatever the cause, pressure builds up inside the eyeball (intraocular pressure). Raised intraocular pressure (IOP) can cause damage to the optic nerves and the nerve fibres from the retina.

Some form of glaucoma is said to affect about two out of every 100 people in the UK who are over 40, with the risk increasing with age. If glaucoma is left untreated it can cause blindness. However, if it's diagnosed and treated early enough, further damage to the vision can be prevented.

Investigators in the UK have observed that the use of hormone therapy appears to reduce intraocular pressure (IOP) in healthy postmenopausal women,.

Dr. Naing L. Tint, from the University of Nottingham, and colleagues studied the relationship between hormone therapy and IOP because of earlier studies showing that IOP was higher during menstruation than two days before or after, suggesting a hormonal effect on IOP.

Based on the findings, Dr. Tint and colleagues suggest, "hormone therapy may represent a potential new therapeutic approach for the reduction of IOP in patients with glaucoma."

The research team measured IOP in both eyes of 263 white women who had undergone natural menopause, of whom 91 reported current use of hormone therapy and 172 reported never having used it. They note that their study is, to their knowledge, the largest published one investigating the possible effects of hormone therapy on IOP.

According to their report in the January, 2010 issue of Menopause: The Journal of the North American Menopause Society, mean IOP was significantly lower in the hormone therapy group (11.85 vs 13.25 mm Hg).

There was no difference between the 33 women taking estrogen-only and the 58 who were taking a combined estrogen-progesterone preparation. This implies, the physicians note, that "it is the estrogen component that is associated with IOP lowering and that progesterone, when administered in combination with estrogen, was not followed by any significant effect on IOP."

The results were not significantly affected by subject age, time of IOP measurement, or use of other therapy.

Menopause 2010;17.

Reference

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