The eye and visual system in pregnancy, what to expect? An in-depth review

Pregnancy represents a real challenge to all body systems. Physiological changes can involve any of the body organs including the eye and visual system. The ocular effect of pregnancy involves a wide spectrum of physiologic and pathologic changes. The latter might be presenting for the first time during pregnancy such as corneal melting and corneal ectasia, or an already existing ocular pathologies that are modified by pregnancy such as diabetic retinopathy and glaucoma. In addition, pregnancy can affect vision through systemic disease that are either specific to the pregnant state itself such as the pre-eclampsia/eclampsia and Sheehan's syndrome, or systemic diseases that occur more frequently in relation to pregnancy such as Graves’ disease, idiopathic intracranial hypertension, anti-phospholipid syndrome, and disseminated intravascular coagulation.