Testosterone eye drops

[Sharon]

Has anyone here tried testosterone eye drops for their dry eyes?
I've wondered about this for awhile....

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XGYhsa01New

http://www.bioidenticalhormones101.com/Dry_Eye_Syndrome15.html

[Lotus1]

Interesting, never heard of this.

I use bioidentical hrt & T3 thyroid med prescribed by my hormone Dr.

Lotus1

[irish]

I have never heard of these but my gut tells me tread slowly. The reason I say this is because testosterone can cause elevation in blood pressure. This makes me think that it could possibly cause elevation of blood pressure in the eyes and that would be dangerous. I am going to try and ask my DIL who is an optometrist what she knows about this. I will be at their house next week. Irish

[Lotus1]

I'd be concerned re having too much testosterone being a female!!

Lotus1

[irish]

Depends on how much testosterone is in the eyedrops. I know that I tried taking testosterone at one time as a low dose is supposed to be beneficial for some women. Well, not this woman. It made me feel agitated and teary and I guess that is a side effect. Also, aggressiveness is seen in women on testosterone. Irish

[Sharon]

Irish- That's a very good point, the blood pressure issue....
I'd be very interested in hearing what your DIL thinks about it, thanks!

Lotus- From my understanding, eye drops don't really affect the rest of the body. I guess it doesn't really get into the blood stream through the eyes, which is why people can take Restasis eye drops without worry.

[Lotus1]

Guess one can only try the eye drops after researching.

We all need new eyes lol

I'm wondering how well the blood plasma eye drops will work for my eyes when I get them.

Lotus1

[Sharon]

Lotus- Do update us after you try them, sounds interesting!

[irish]

Many eye drops are absorbed through the mucus membranes of the eye. There are some eye drops that are beta blockers and they can affect your heart rate. Many blood pressure meds are beta blockers so if someone is on a beta blocker blood pressure pill the eye doc has to make sure that he gives the right kind of eye drops. The patient could have a drop in blood pressure and pulse that could be problematic. Irish

[Lotus1]

Yes, Sharon I will up date.
Doubt I'll have the drops to try before going on hols in 2.5 wks, never know though.

Lotus1

[irish]

Just talked with my optometrist DIL a the about the testosterone eye drops. She researched them as she said she had not heard of them. It turns out that they are pretty much off label and the reason they were given is because of people who are android deficient, people having a certain genetic eye issue and there was one other thing that I already forgot. People who used these had to have testing to prove they were androgen deficient.

Years ago around 2003 there was a fellow who had developed a testosterone eye drop that did not work that well and also turned out to be toxic so the people quit using it. This sounds like something that is not worth pursuing to my notion. Sounds dangerous as not FDA approved. Irish

[Sharon]

Interesting, according to this article seems that androgen deficiency resulting in dry eye is present in SJS, which is why the testosterone eye drops may help (this is from 2015):

http://ophthalmologytimes.modernmedicine.com/ophthalmologytimes/news/testosterone-eye-drops-novel-treatment-dry-eye-disease

[irish]

I read through this whole article and have to admit that it was a very small, limited study that was done in his office. He did have a drug company that was involved in the testing as he needed someone to formulate the eye drops. The test involved 9 women and 3 men. They were peri/post menopausal with eye dryness.

I won't go into all of the details because people can read this for themselves. The 12 people in this study are not considered a large enough study to be taken seriously and is not approved by the protocols that affect drug studies. He did use the testosterone in one eye and a control or another benign eye drop in the other eye. After a 2 week period of time he found that a 30%  3.2 patients had improvement from the testosterone eye drops.

He also found that when it came time to reveal which eyes had the testosterone drop it turned out that both eyes of the patient revealed improvement, He concluded that the testosterone was absorbed systemically and that is why the eye with the control drop showed improvement. The possibility of systemic absorption is of concern over the long term, I will add.

At one point he added that he did start treating people in is office with this regime. He also states that these patients must use Restasis(which is cyclosporine drops) and have punctal occlusions in order to receive these testosterone drops. The Restasis and occlusionsd alone would improve the dryness of the eye so it would be almost impossible to justify using the testosterone drops based on his very, very small unapproved study plus adding the cost of the drops which aren't covered by insurance.

In the article he also stated that people with Sjogrens are not helped very much with this testosterone protocol. I am trying to let you know from the few notes I took. If others wish to read this article I would advise them to do so. It strikes me that this is a very small study that was not approved nor followed up by any of the larger study and research groups. Twelve people in a doctors office is not something that can be taken seriously at this time.

As time goes along I think the medical community will nail down just what the hormonal aspects are that affect those of us with Sjogrens. Until then we will have to seek treatment from our own physicians. Thanks. Irish

[Sharon]

Thank you very much for your input Irish! 
There's alot of "buzz" around this treatment, especially in dry eye forums,
but true that there doesn't seem to be much behind it at this point.
As far as I understand it wouldn't make sense that the untreated eye would improve through systemic absorbtion,
since eye drops are not supposed to have systemic effects.
If that were the case it would be dangerous to use Restasis eye drops.

[Maria3667]

Hi Sharon,

I much suspect the membranes of the eyes do absorb exogenous substances into the bloodstream. For exemaple I recollect this weird incident at high school when a student had blood red shot eyes, because he would put LSD paper on his cornea (!!). Needless to say we were all baffled, but he continued to do it - so it must have had the desired effect (until he got expelled!).

Besides that, I can't see how a tiny bit of testosteron would have a profound effect on blood pressure or otherwise. I've been taking low dose testosteron for more than a decade and experience no ill effects. My low dose however is probably much more than would be in the testosterone eye drops. But the good news is, my testosterone (applied to thighs and upper arms) does help improve eye moisture.

That said, I'm a stronger advocate for Dhea (intravaginal), which even in as little as 2.5 mg is enabling me to wear eye contact lenses again. For me, this is a real 'tear jerker'... lol ...