Western Laser Eye Associates | Dr. Anderson Penno
Monday, November 3, 2008
LASIK and Pregnancy
Are you pregnant or planning to become pregnant? Are you breastfeeding? If so, you are not a good LASIK candidate until after these activities are finished. Dr. Penno does thorough screening of potential LASIK patients and two of the questions always asked of women is whether they are pregnant or lactating.
To have excellent LASIK results, you have to be as good a LASIK candidate as possible, within the parameters of safety and effectiveness. During pregnancy certain hormones are produced which make many changes in the body, and one of them is increased fluid retention. Most pregnant women experience some degree of fluid retention but may not realize that it occurs in the eye’s lens as well as in the ankles and other areas.
Reasons to Wait for Your LASIK
To have excellent LASIK results, you have to be as good a LASIK candidate as possible, within the parameters of safety and effectiveness. During pregnancy certain hormones are produced which make many changes in the body, and one of them is increased fluid retention. Most pregnant women experience some degree of fluid retention but may not realize that it occurs in the eye’s lens as well as in the ankles and other areas.
Reasons to Wait for Your LASIK
- Swelling in the lens causes increased myopia (nearsightedness) and sometimes also astigmatism. In some cases it can cause hyperopia (farsightedness). A vision correction done while swelling is present would not be accurate after the swelling subsided.
- Drugs used during LASIK are antibiotic eyedrops to prevent infection and cortisone eyedrops to reduce inflammation. A mild sedative may also be used to help you relax. These will all enter the bloodstream and could therefore affect the baby. It is not known whether they enter the milk also, but why take the risk?
- Pregnancy causes some dryness in the eyes. LASIK also causes dryness during recovery. If you went into your LASIK procedure already having dry eyes and then compounded that with the post-surgical dryness you could develop Dry Eye Syndrome which is chronic.
If you are pregnant or lactating, and would like to learn more about LASIK and whether it would be a good option for you later, by all means contact us. We will be happy to explain things, answer your questions and examine your eyes. Then when you are ready for LASIK we can continue the candidate screening and choose the best procedure for your individual eyes.
posted by
Patti
at
11:49 AM
1
comments
Previous Posts
- Nearsightedness On The Rise
- Nearsightedness On The Rise
- Calgary Epi-LASIK, LASIK, PRK, Intra-LASIK: What ...
- Epi-LASIK, PRK, LASIK & Epi-LASIK: Laser Vision Co...
- New Book About LASIK, PRK, Epi-LASIK, and Intra-LA...
- Recovery after No-Flap Laser Vision Correction: P...
- LASIK, Epi-LASIK, PRK, Intralase and Diabetes
- H1N1 (Swine Flu) in Calgary
- What is laser vision correction - LASIK,Epi-LASIK,...
- Why do I have to leave my contact lenses out befor...
Archives
- March 2008
- April 2008
- May 2008
- June 2008
- July 2008
- August 2008
- September 2008
- November 2008
- December 2008
- January 2009
- February 2009
- March 2009
- April 2009
- May 2009
- July 2009
- September 2009
- November 2009
- January 2010
- February 2010
- March 2010
Dr. Anderson Penno can care for all of your general ophthalmology needs, and she personally evaluates each and every patient.
