Receiving contraceptives may lead to blindness

Scientists have followed the unpleasant trend: women who take contraceptives for a long time - more than three years - are twice as likely to develop chronic vision disorders, even to the point of completely losing it.

First of all, such women are often struck by glaucoma - this is a dangerous eye disease, leading to irreversible consequences. Glaucoma develops with functional blockage of intraocular drainage channels: the fluid outlet is inhibited, the intraocular pressure rises and, as a result, the retina and optic nerve are damaged and destroyed.

Thanks to a new study, the scientists first discovered an increased risk of developing this disease in patients who have long used oral contraceptives. Starting today, specialists have the right to require gynecological and ophthalmologic doctors to warn women about a possible increase in the risk of developing glaucoma while taking birth control pills.

Prevention of glaucoma is incredibly important, as the violations caused by this insidious disease can not be restored - only in some cases, with the early application for medical help, doctors manage to stop the progression of pathology. However, unfortunately, more and more often the diagnosis of glaucoma is established already in the late stages of the disease.

According to statistics, glaucoma is affected by more than sixty million people on the planet (the average age of patients is 40-80 years). Forecasts are also disappointing: it is expected that in 2020 the number of glaucoma patients will approach 76 million, and in 2040 the number of patients will increase to 112 million.

Professor Shan Lina, a representative of the University of California, San Francisco, along with his team, carefully analyzed medical information about almost 3.5 thousand patients of the middle age group of about 40 years. The study was conducted in the United States between 2005 and 2008.

It was found that those participants of the experiment who took some or other oral contraceptive for 3-4 years and more, subsequently twice as often faced with a diagnosis of "glaucoma".

Specialists failed to unravel and establish a direct causal relationship between the intake of oral contraceptives and the development of glaucoma. It follows that prolonged use of such drugs can be considered as a likely risk factor.

Previous scientific projects have already given enough evidence that one of the most important female hormones - estrogen - is able to influence visual function and glaucoma development - this fact can to some extent be used to explain the findings of the last study.

The results of the work were announced at the 117th Annual Conference of the American Ophthalmic Academy (New Orleans), as well as on the Academy's website - aao.org.

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