Hi, I'm a new member. I've had dry eyes since 1993 from taking accutane. This medicine affects the meibomian (sebaceous)glands but not the lacrimal ones. I noticed around 1997 my eyes were extremely dry, almost unbearable. Since then they have regained some of their moisture. This can be a really uncomfortable condition. I'm interested in research showing that androgens like DHEA in eyedrop form can rejuvenate meibomian glands at least in rabbits. This came out of research that showed that anti-androgen medicines like Proscar and Propecia were drying out patients meibomian glands. I have only gone to the eye doctor once (11 years ago) for this condition because he told me it was just old age (I was 24 then). I know someone on another message board who says that DHEA is the best thing they tried and they tried everything. To get the drops I would have to go to the eye doctor and I just don't trust them. Right now I take Theratears maybe every hour on a bad day and sometimes not at all on a good day. Also, Amy, occular rosacea is a meibomian gland not lacrimal gland condition (at least that's what I read).

Calibug, they did experiments with DHEA eye drops in rabbits at Harvard. The eyedrops thinned out meibomian gland secretions and relieved evaporative dry eye. The experiments were short term, only two weeks long. They speculate longer term use could actually increase the quantity of secretions since the gland reacts very slowly to the hormones. DHEA eye drops are available by prescription but are extremely, extremely, pricey. They've also done the opposite, studied patients on finasteride, a DHT blocking compound. All of these patients, dozens, had mild to severe symptoms of dry eye after several months. The patients were on a very heavy dose of finasteride prescribed for prostate cancer patients. Allergan is expected to introduce an androgen compound for dry eyes in 2005 in Europe called Androgen Tears. Also, lack of androgen has been shown by researchers at USC, I think, to cause white blood cells to migrate to the lacrimal glands where they can cause inflammation. This leads to a disorder called Sojgren's Syndrome. Clearly male hormone deficiency is the key factor in many or most cases of dry eye. Currently 3/4 of dry eye sufferers are women (women have 1/3 less androgen), most are post-menopausal (androgen plummets after menopause), 70% of these had tried hormone replacement therapy. Of sufferers who are male most are older (androgen drops with age), or took medicine that blocked androgen like propecia, proscar, accutane, avodart. These findings only came about around 5 years ago so it takes awhile to get from the lab to the pharmacy.