Will Pregnancy Change my Lasik Result?

Pregnancy does not permanently alter one's vision. There may be a transient and mild myopic shift. However, regular All-Laser-LASIK or PRK are viable options in these situations.

My rule of thumb is no laser vision correction surgery within 6 months of beginning pregnancy. I also recommend waiting 6 months after finishing breast feeding. As far as custom versus traditional treatments go, I prefer custom treatments in all patients who qualify for it. They are both great treatments but the customized ablation is likely the better option for those who are candidates for it.

The major hormonal changes that women undergo during pregnancy can cause unpredictable healing.  For that reason, I suggest that women avoid pregnancy for the first three months after LASIK and suggest that they wait until no longer pregnant and no long breast feeding before having surgery.  Women who have had LASIK outside of these time periods rarely have any change in their vision.

the teaching in the books seems to say that a person's refractive error (Rx) changes with pregnancy

if this is true, it would make sense not to do LASIK or LASEK around pregnancy, as the Rx would change

however, this is one case where what the books say is probably not actually true

think about it: if it were common that your Rx would change in pregnancy, you'd hear people say things like, "oh, i just had to get new glasses/contacts because the prescription changed because i got pregnant, you know"

if it were true, you'd say, "oh, yeah, i've heard that happen, my sister (for ex) had to do that"

instead, you'd actually say something like, "WHAT? i have NEVER heard of that happening?!"

i've done LASIK and LASEK on about 100 women who got pregnant by accident, not really meaning they had an unplanned pregnancy, but that they didn't know they were pregnant when they came in for their free consultation or testing or surgery, so we unknowingly lasered a pregnant woman

in 100% of these cases (100 out of 100), they did ABSOLUTELY FINE WITHOUT ANY COMPLICATIONS and did NOT have a worse or less predictable outcome than the non-pregnant women (or men for that matter)

so i think this is something that should be taken off the books, and there is no reason not to laser pregnant people, as this doesn't change their outcome in any way, as i could detect, out of 100 cases in the past decade

you should, however, avoid possibly risky medicines in the postop period after you know you are pregnant, like restasis, and probably not have MMC in the OR, and get punctal plugs to decrease systemic absorption of the steroid drops into breast milk

but again, i've also lasered about 100 people who didn't admit they were breast feeding, or if they did, we just pumped and dumped for a few days as they were on these meds, so their risk was pretty much zero!:)

Pregnancy can sometimes (rarely) cause a minor shift in vision, which is usually temporary. Therefore, we do not like to treat women who are currently pregnant or who are breast feeding. In very rare cases, there will be a minor permanent shift in vision following pregnancy, which can be corrected by Lasik if needed.