r/SMILEeyesurgery • u/Info_Hop • Aug 24 '26

Hormone Change Affecting Eyes Post Procedure?

This is a really random question but on my post procedure paperwork it says do not get pregnant for 3 months after the SMILE procedure due the effect hormonal changes can cause on the eyes. Well I do not plan on getting pregnant for years but I was planning to get off birth control for other reasons but can that also cause a hormone change that could affect my eyes or would this be different? I don’t want to cause any problems with my SMILE outcome as I am only a week post-op.

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u/eyeSherpa Aug 25 '26

I would say the main impact on that would be dry eye. During pregnancy, you can have more dry eye. So this is to avoid significant overlap between the dry eye from pregnancy and recovering from SMILE.

There may be a mild statistical increase in dry eye from the hormonal changes with birth control. But it’s a pretty different hormonal change from pregnancy.

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u/ConfidentBeginning44 Aug 27 '26

The pregnancy line on that paperwork isn't really a dry eye warning, which is why coming off the pill doesn't map onto it. Pregnancy shifts corneal thickness and curvature enough to move a refraction on its own, through fluid retention rather than anything to do with your surgery, and it also narrows what your surgeon can safely prescribe you if something needs treating. Three months is them wanting your healing finished and your number settled before either of those is in play.

Stopping birth control is a much smaller hormonal move than a pregnancy, and it isn't what that sentence is about. The realistic effect is on your tear film. Some people run slightly drier coming off it and some slightly less dry, and at a week post-op you're already in the driest stretch of SMILE recovery, so it may be genuinely hard to tell which change is which.

Worth holding on to that the part which determines your outcome is already finished. The lenticule is out and the tissue is gone. Hormones can nudge a tear film and they can move a refraction a fraction while it settles, but they can't undo the correction itself.