Dry Eye Through Life

Key overview

  • The drivers shift with age: environmental and behavioural in your twenties and thirties, hormonal and medication-related later.
  • Androgens influence meibomian gland function directly, which is why dry eye rises sharply around menopause.
  • Several very widely prescribed drug classes reduce tear production, often without eyes being mentioned at prescribing.
  • Dry eye tends to move from intermittent to persistent with age, which changes it from an episodic to a maintained treatment.

The drivers of dry eye change across a lifetime. In your twenties and thirties it is usually environmental and behavioural — screens, contact lenses, air conditioning. From the forties onward, hormonal change, accumulated medication and systemic disease become the dominant factors, and the condition tends to move from intermittent to persistent.

Androgen levels influence meibomian gland function directly, which is why dry eye becomes markedly more common around and after menopause, and why hormone therapy sometimes changes symptoms in either direction. Several very widely prescribed drug classes reduce tear production as a side effect, often without the prescribing conversation mentioning eyes at all.

This section covers what changes when, and what is safe and sensible to do at each stage.

Guides in this section

4 articles, grouped by what they answer.

Where our products fit

Hormonally driven dry eye tends to be persistent rather than episodic, which makes it a case for a maintained routine rather than occasional relief. Dry Eye Starter Package.

Related sections

  • Dry Eye Treatment — Every treatment that works, what each one actually does, and how to tell which applies to you.
  • Omega-3 & Eye Nutrition — What you swallow, how it reaches the tear film, and how long it takes.
  • Eye Surgery & Recovery — Dryness before, during and after LASIK, cataract and eyelid surgery.