What is the effect of pregnancy on eye power?

Pregnancy is a time of significant hormonal changes in the body, as the mother accommodates and nourishes a growing baby within her own body.

These hormonal changes can lead to fluctuations in spectacle power. If this happens, it is often in the form of a myopic shift-ie short-sighted people become a bit more short-sighted, while long-sighted (hyperopic) people become a bit less long-sighted.

This is likely to be related to increases in both corneal thickness and curvature, and may be associated with fluid retention in the body. The changes usually reverse after the baby is born.

As the spectacle power measured during pregnancy may not be the same as what is present after the baby is born, it is usual for doctors to advise pregnant ladies who are keen for LASIK (and other refractive surgery) to wait until after the baby is born before having such surgery, so that a more accurate outcome can be achieved.

During pregnancy, there are a lot of changes in a woman’s anatomy and physiology.

In the eye, these changes can affect the cornea and crystalline lens, most likely due to water retention, especially in the last stage of pregnancy. There could be an increase in the thickness and curvature of the cornea and lens. Thus it can cause a temporary change in the refractive error.

In the event that a woman is considering to go for laser vision correction, it is recommended to go for the pre-laser evaluation. She should wait until she has delivered and has stopped breastfeeding completely for at least 3 months due to the hormonal changes in her body. This would allow the refractive error to stabilise. Thus it will be more accurate to proceed for laser vision correction.