Estrogen Therapy Reduces Glaucoma Risk

There are many well known factors that increase your risk of glaucoma including diabetes, family history and smoking. Some other less familiar glaucoma risk factors include having sleep apnea and the early onset of menopause. But, the role of estrogen may be more important than was recognized in that it appears that estrogen postmenopausal hormone therapy may actually reduce your risk of glaucoma.

Research on Glaucoma & Postmenopausal Hormone Therapy
According to researchers publishing in JAMA Ophthalmology taking estrogen only postmenopausal hormone (PMH) treatment may help reduce the risk for primary open-angle glaucoma (POAG). By reviewing data from 152,163 women 50 years or older the researchers found that 1.9 percent of enrollees developed POAG. Each additional month of use of PMH containing estrogen only was associated with a 0.4 percent reduced risk for POAG whereas each additional month of use of estrogen + progesterone or estrogen + androgen hormones did not affect risk for POAG. This is interesting information and will require further prospective clinical studies to understand fully but may offer some novel treatments for primary open angle glaucoma (POAG), an insidious sight threatening eye diseases and the most common type of glaucoma.

If you or someone you know has a question about glaucoma risk factors and postmenopausal hormone therapy or needs an eye exam with glaucoma testing please call Northwest Indiana Eye & Laser Center at 219-464-8223, or visit Northwest Indiana Eye & Laser Center, Google+ or facebook.com/nwindianaeyeandlaser.

Northwest Indiana Eye & Laser Center offices are located at 502 Marquette Street, Valparaiso, Indiana 46383 and 1001 South Edgewood Drive, Knox, Indiana 46354.