I am so grateful to have come across this website and to find this information regarding pregnancy. I just had Lasik several weeks ago (left eye -11.75, right eye -10.75). Since I was highly myopic, I am being told that it will take 6-12 months before my side effects go away (bad night vision, halos, the usual). The part that really has me saddened is the fact that my husband and I were planning to try to start trying to get pregnant this month. I told my doctor about this before the surgery and asked if there way any reason that it would be a concern. He said that there wasn’t. And now I am reading that most doctors recommend that a patient wait until 3-6 after Lasik to get pregnant. It makes me wonder if my doctor simply told me what I wanted to hear so that I wouldn’t change my mind about getting Lasik (he just wanted his $4,800 maybe?). Of course waiting another six months is not unbearable, but since we had already postponed it too long for other reasons, we were very anxious to start a family soon. My question for the doctors on this site is that since I am having so many problems with my vision right now (probably due to my high prescription to start with), is there any reason that I should wait even longer than the 3-6 month period that is recommended for the average patient? Also, why would my doctor have told me that I could get pregnant immediately if there is indeed a “waiting period”?

You should not have refractive surgery if you are pregnant, nursing, or expect to become pregnant or nurse within six months of refractive surgery. If you are pregnant, you should wait at least two months after you stop nursing to have refractive surgery. In all cases, you should not have refractive surgery until you have a stable refractive error.

Hormones produced during pregnancy and lactation will cause most women's refractive state to fluctuate dramatically - with or without refractive surgery.

If measurements to determine the amount of correction to be surgically induced are taken during this fluctuation, a false reading may occur and your eyes would be corrected inappropriately. If fluctuation occurs during recovery, it would be impossible to tell if the refractive change is due to pregnancy or the surgery.

Another important consideration is that the drugs used to correct complications of refractive surgery may be dangerous to the pregnancy or may pass through lactation to the infant.

One can only speculate why you would have been advised otherwise.

Glenn Hagele
Council for Refractive Surgery Quality Assurance
http://www.USAEyes.org
http://www.ComplicatedEyes.org
Email: glenn dot hagele at usaeyes dot org

I am not a doctor.