Indian Journal of Ophthalmology

ARTICLES
Year
: 1974  |  Volume : 22  |  Issue : 4  |  Page : 16--18

Ocular rigidity during normal menstrual cycle


RL Vaid, Hamida Bachh, L Ahuja 
 Department of Ophthalmology, Govt. Medical College, Srinagar (Kashmir), India

Correspondence Address:
R L Vaid
Department of Ophthalmology, Govt. Medical College, Srinagar (Kashmir)
India




How to cite this article:
Vaid R L, Bachh H, Ahuja L. Ocular rigidity during normal menstrual cycle.Indian J Ophthalmol 1974;22:16-18


How to cite this URL:
Vaid R L, Bachh H, Ahuja L. Ocular rigidity during normal menstrual cycle. Indian J Ophthalmol [serial online] 1974 [cited 2024 Mar 28 ];22:16-18
Available from: https://journals.lww.com/ijo/pages/default.aspx/text.asp?1974/22/4/16/31349


Full Text

The ocular rigidity is determined by vari�ous factors, the most important of which is the extensibility of the cornea and sclera. As the connective tissue has been known to change its physical properties, so the ocular rigidity is likely to vary in certain local and systemic conditions, in addition to the advance in age. Amongst the systemic conditions the ocular rigidity is lowered in thyrotropic ex�ophthalmos [1] while experimentally Saiduzzafar [7] has reported that hydration of corneoscleral envelope of the human eye produce a fall in ocular rigidity. In view of these observations, it was considered worth while to study the effect, if any, of the hormonal variation, oc�curing during normal menstrual cycle, on the ocular rigidity in normal females.

 Material and Methods



54 females cases were selected from patients attend�ing the out-patient department of Gandhi Eye Hospi�tal, Aligarh for refractive problems. All these cases were thoroughly examined to rule out any concurrent ocular disease or gynaecological problem The selected cases were having normal menstrual cycle of 26 to 30 days with average bleeding for 2-4 days. The age varied from 15 to 39 years with 24 years as the average.

The ocular rigidity of 108 eyes of 54 females cases was calculated using Friedenwads Nomogram (1955) after recording the intraocular pressure by applanation and the electronic Schiotz tonometers. The ocular rigidity was calculated on the Ist, 7th, 14th, 21st and 25th day of the normal menstrual cycle. [Table 1].

 Results And Discussion



Biochemists have developed methods which allow the precise estimation of the amounts of oestrogens and progesterones and their excretions products in the urine. When the excretion curves obtained during a normal menstrual cycle are studied it becomes clear that oestrogen content shows two clearly de�fined peaks. During the menstrual flow, the oestrogen is at a very low level, rising to a peak about two days before ovulation, follow�ed by a steep fall. The second peak usually lower than the first occurs during the luteal phase, decreasing again three to four days before the onset of menstrual flow. The proges�terone on the other hand is present in very small quantities during the first half of the cycle, followed by rapid increase in second half after ovulation, reaching maximum two to three days before the menstrual flow. The withdrawal of these ovarian hormones is fol�lowed by the menstrual flow [5] . The hormonal variation in normal menstrual cycle are gra�phically represented in [Figure 1].

So in a normal menstrual cycle the level of ovarian hormones vary during different stages and this variation when worked out in relationship to the days of menstrual cycle shows that:

On the first day of menstrual flow, proges�terone is nearly absent while oestrogen has gradually started increasing in amount.

On seventh day while progesterone is still nearly absent, the amount of oestrogen is in�creasing progressively.

Ovulation as a routine takes place from 12th to 16th day, so on an average if it is as�sumed to occur on the 14th day, then two days before the ovulation the oestrogen having reached its maximum value decreases rapidly. On 14th day the oestrogen is only present in small amounts, while progesterone starts appearing, i.e. both the ovarian hormones are in minimal quantities.

On 21st day the progesterone is rapidly in�creasing along with the second oestrogen peak which is smaller than the first. On 25th day it was assumed that both the ovarian hormones have dropped to minimal levels so that men�strual flow could take place in 2-3 days time.

So first, seventh, fourteenth, twenty-first and twenty-fifth days were chosen to record ocular rigidity as these coincided with definite hormonal phases in menstrual cycle. The results obtained, i.e. the average value, the mean value, and the standard deviation are given in [Table 1] while the distribution of mean ocular rigidity during menstrual cycle is given in [Figure 2].

It is clear from [Table 1] that the mean ocu�lar rigidity does not show wide variation and apparently is not effected by the varying levels of ovarian hormones, during the menstrual cycle. Statistical analysis of the values ob�tained was carried out. T test was applied to find out whether the difference between highest value and the lowest value of ocular rigidity was significant or not [Table 2].

Calculated T value in all the three cases is less than the tabulated value at 5 per cent of significance at 107 degree of freedom, indicat�ing that the differences are small and statisti�cally insignificant. So it is concluded after the statistical analysis that ovarian hormone variation in normal menstural cycle does not signi�ficantly affect the ocular rigidity.

 Summary



Ocular rigidity was determined in 108 eyes of 54 females cases with normal menstrual cycle on Ist, 7th, 14th, 21st and 25th day. The results obtained were statistically analysed. It was found that the variations in value were slight and the differences were not statistically significant meaning that ocular rigidity is not affected by normal hormonal variations occur�ing in normal human menstrual cycles.

References

1Becker-Shafers, 1970, Diagnosis and therapy of glaucoma, 3rd Ed., P. III. C.V. Mosby Com�pany, Saint Luis.
2Draeger, J, 1959, Docum. Ophthal, Den Haag, 13,431.
3Friedenwad, J.S. 1937, Amer. J. Ophthal, 20, 985.
4Gloster, J, 1966, Tonometery and Tonography, J.& A. Churchill Ltd.
5 Jhonstone, R.W., 1961, London W.I.A. Text Book of Midwifery, 10th, 50, Adam and Charles Black, London.
6Kiritoshi' Y. 1955, Acta Soc. Ophthal. Jap. 59, 1719 (Quoted in Ophth. Lit, (1955) 9, 2339)
7Saiduzzafar, H., 1962, Brit. J. Ophthal. 46, 717.