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The recent Research has proved that birth control pills may increase a woman's risk of eye disease later in life, a study finds, because they may reduce protective levels of estrogen.The eye disease slowly damages the optic nerve and is most common in people over 40. There are treatments that can slow its progression, but there is no cure.Doctors have long known that cells in the eye have estrogen receptors. But in the past few years they've started looking into whether the changes in a woman's estrogen levels as she goes through life could affect her risk of glaucoma
In this study, researchers looked at data on 3,406 women over 40 who participated in a bignational health survey administered by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. The women who had taken oral contraceptives for more than three years were more than twice as likely to be diagnosed with glaucoma.
The nurses study followed almost 75,000 women over age 40 from 1980 to 2006. Though there's no way to tell if taking the pill caused the increase, the authors concluded: "These data add further support for a role of circulating estrogen in the pathogenesis of glaucoma.
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