Pregnancy Can Affect Your Vision in Several Ways

It's obvious that pregnancy changes your body, but did you know it can also affect the way you see? Along with a host of other bodily changes, pregnancy can affect your eyes and quality of vision. Hormone levels during pregnancy are responsible for most of these changes. Hormones are quite elevated during the last two months of pregnancy, causing your body to change in a multitude of different ways.

While these changes are usually temporary, they can sometimes signal more serious conditions. If you're experiencing vision or eye-related changes that concern you, or if you just need help with sudden blurry vision, consult your obstetrician and ophthalmologist or optometrist. Here are the top five eye and vision changes that may occur during your pregnancy:

Uncomfortable Contact Lenses

Pregnant woman reading on the couch — Izabela Habur/Getty Images

Wearing contact lenses comfortably requires plenty of lubrication, either in the form of tears or lubricating eye drops. Sometimes the increase in hormones during pregnancy changes the tear film, making the eyes drier. Because of this, many pregnant women find wearing contact lenses intolerable, even if they've worn them for years.

During pregnancy, subtle changes occur to the shape of the cornea too. Those contact lenses that once felt very comfortable may suddenly fit differently due to changes in corneal curvature. The cornea may also swell, which is called edema. Corneal edema can cause the cornea to become irritated more easily.

If you're an avid contact lens wearer, you may have to switch to glasses during your pregnancy. Most doctors advise against being fitted for new contact lenses while you're pregnant as your eyes may be in a constant state of change. If you normally wear contact lenses on a daily basis, make sure you have a good pair of backup glasses to wear during your pregnancy if you need a break from your contacts.

Blurry Vision

Pregnancy often causes swelling throughout the body. Swelling that sometimes occurs during pregnancy may cause mild changes to your glasses or contact lens prescription. You may feel more nearsighted one day and distant objects may be blurry. For most women, these vision changes are not enough to warrant a prescription change or new glasses during pregnancy, as this is usually temporary.

Dry Eyes

Blame it on hormones if your eyes constantly feel dry. Hormonal changes during pregnancy can dry your eyes out and leave you with little or no extra tears for lubrication. The quality or quantity of your tears may also change substantially while you're pregnant. Dry eyes can sometimes cause you to feel like a piece of sand is in your eye. Your eyes may burn, itch, or even suddenly become excessively watery.

Your doctor may recommend that you use artificial tears several times a day to alleviate discomfort due to dry eyes. Ask your eye doctor about other treatments if artificial tears don't resolve your symptoms.

Diabetic Retinopathy

If you have diabetes, you are susceptible to the development or worsening of diabetic retinopathy during your pregnancy. Pregnant women may develop bleeding or fluid leakage in the retina, which can cause blurred vision and, in some cases, significant vision loss and even blindness.

If you have any type of diabetes, you should have at least one and possibly more eye examinations during pregnancy, especially if your blood sugar levels are not stable. Obstetricians are aware of this and usually work closely with your eye care professionals

Increased Spots and Floaters

Pregnant women who complain of spots in their vision are taken very seriously. These dark spots could be what's known as scotomata. Unlike floaters, which move across the visual field and can be normal (whether pregnant or not), scotomata are stable and usually involve a larger part of the field of vision. Scotomata can indicate preeclampsia or eclampsia, complications during some pregnancies that can cause blood pressure to become dangerously high. Although this can result in unusual visual symptoms, in most cases eye damage is limited and vision returns to normal upon resolution of the high blood pressure.