Hilda Hernandez Nash was driving to work one morning when she suddenly could not tolerate her contact lenses. Her eyes felt like sandpaper, then turned red, watery, and swollen, and at one point she had trouble focusing. She thought she had some form of pink eye. An eye doctor told her it was dry eye, a chronic condition that is common in women moving through menopause and often mistaken for something else.
Her experience, reported by NPR, reflects a pattern that eye specialists describe repeatedly. Symptoms overlap closely with conjunctivitis and seasonal allergies, which sends people toward the wrong treatment while the underlying condition continues.
