A 25-year-old married woman recently went to the emergency room at a hospital in Chandigarh, India after she experienced haemolacria (crying tears of blood). Interestingly, she wasn’t in any pain or discomfort and told doctors that she experienced the same thing a month as well.
She even underwent a vast array of tests to ascertain the root cause of her bleeding eyes, but all reports came normal. Neither were there any injuries to the eyes, nor she didn’t have a family history of an ocular bleeding condition or any past issues with her eyes. So, what was really causing it?
Vicarious menstruation represents cyclical bleeding in extragenital organs during a normal menstrual cycle. The ocular surface is confirmed to be an estrogen-dependent unit.
Though the exact anatomical cause is still relatively unknown, experts believe endometriosis or the presence of endometrial tissue in extragenital organs can be a factor in developing vicarious menstruation.
“Oestrogen and progesterone can increase the permeability of capillaries resulting in hyperaemia, congestion and secondary bleeding from extrauterine tissue,” the study’s authors said. The woman was treated with oral contraceptives containing a combination of estrogen and progesterone. She told the doctors that she didn’t experience bloody tears after a three-month follow-up.
Cases of haemolacria have been attributed to a number of causes and conditions. Some of the more common include hormone changes, menstruation, inflammation, conjunctival injuries, trauma, blocked tear duct, high blood pressure, blood disorders, such as hemophilia, nosebleeds, pyogenic granuloma, melanoma and tumors.