A short transcript from a YouTube video (Dr. Tabatha Barber) explaining that dry eye is very common in women—particularly those over age 50—and that hormonal changes (declining estrogen, progesterone, and testosterone) alter the eyelid glands and reduce healthy tear secretion, making dry eye more severe in women than men.
I don't think women realize this connection. You know, they're like, oh, I'm just getting old. And how much does age have to do with it? Is it age or is it hormonal shifts?
So what I'll say is age plays a part of it. And definitely the other conditions, like for example, we were talking earlier about dry eye that is almost universal across women above the age of 50. Almost every woman above 50 suffers from dry eye. And you have to think why is that? And it has to do with our hormones. And yes, men can get it too, but not as severe. So, you know, with women's dropping estrogen levels and also progesterone and testosterone, there are changes that happen in the glands in the eyelids that don't allow us to secrete healthy tears. And so that's what's leading to dry eye in most people. So it's very, very common in women.
