One of the more unusual things I've tried for my dry eye was amniotic membrane treatment, as part of a clinical trial at Aston University. The first eye went perfectly. The second was uncomfortable and a bit unlucky. Here's honestly how it went.
Amniotic membrane comes from the innermost layer of the placenta, and it's rich in growth factors, with strong anti-inflammatory and healing properties. On the eye, it's used to calm and repair a damaged, inflamed surface. In my case, a thin, dehydrated piece of membrane (a product called Omnigen) was placed onto a specialised bandage contact lens (OmniLenz), which then went into my eye to hold the membrane against the surface while it did its work. Both are made by a company called NuVision Biotherapies.
I actually found the trial myself, on ClinicalTrials.gov, and it was being run at Aston University in Birmingham. The first time I took part, it was a proper clinical trial, so there was a group getting the real treatment and a group getting a placebo, which was simply a bandage contact lens with no membrane attached. At the time I was 99% sure I'd just had plain bandage lenses, and now that I've had the real membrane done too, I'm 100% certain that first round was the placebo.
Then they emailed me a second time. Because I'd done the first trial, they were running it again, but this time offering everyone the real treatment, with no placebo group. So I said yes, and went back.
There were a lot of tests first, because they had to be sure I genuinely had the right type of dry eye, with real inflammation. They checked things like my tear break-up time, my oil production, and my tear production, and your dry eye has to be over a certain level to be included at all.
They also ran a test I'd never had before, to measure the inflammation in my eye, where the machine actually has to touch your eye, so they put numbing drops in first. I'm not squeamish about my eyes, certainly not anymore after everything I've had done, and honestly you don't feel a thing. I know some people really worry about that test, but it was completely fine. It came back showing I did have inflammation markers, which meant I could go ahead.
They do one eye at a time, because the membrane can make your vision quite cloudy and hard to see through. Having both done at once would leave you really struggling to see. They place the membrane onto the lens, where it adheres, and then put the lens into your eye.
I'd never worn contact lenses before, but it was fine. You can feel that it's there, because bandage lenses are a lot bigger than normal contacts, and it wasn't especially comfortable, but it didn't hurt. The main thing is that you can't see clearly out of that eye for the next few days. I had it in for three or four days, then you go back and they take it out.
The first eye went absolutely fine. The second eye is where I had a bit of bad luck.
What I think happened is that the membrane didn't quite adhere to the lens properly. It felt fine at first, but once I got home I developed this awful, scratchy feeling that was genuinely unbearable.
I went to the eye hospital, and they refused to take it out, because they were unfamiliar with what it was, which honestly is fair enough. I'd contacted the university too, but it was a Saturday and the team running the trial weren't in, so I was told I'd have to come back on the Monday. There was simply no way I could keep it in my eye until Monday.
Luckily, my mum rang around and found someone local who was willing to take it out: an optometrist who was training in dry eye, knew about the study, and was genuinely interested. It cost me an emergency appointment fee, about £50, but he removed the lens, and the relief was enormous. He said it looked like a corner of the membrane had flipped over inside the lens, and that was what had been scratching my eye.
I want to be really clear, though: the staff at the university were lovely and completely professional the whole way through. What happened to me was just bad luck, and bad luck that it fell on a weekend, when the team weren't around to help. It genuinely wasn't anyone's fault.
After that, I was told I could come back and have another lens put in. But honestly, I was a bit shaken by that point, and I'm not close to Birmingham, it's a good four-hour journey for me, so I decided not to go back and finish the trial.
Here's the honest bit. My eyes actually weren't too bad at the time I did this. I jumped at the chance because, why not, and if it could make an improvement, that would have been brilliant. Because I ended the trial early, it's genuinely hard for me to say whether I saw a benefit.
But I do think it's a good treatment, and the science behind it is solid. I believe things like this can absolutely work. If anything, I don't think I was the ideal candidate: my corneas aren't that damaged, so someone with a more damaged ocular surface might benefit far more than I would have.
It was a fascinating experience, and I really wouldn't let what happened to me put you off. I think I just got very unlucky, and I would absolutely do it again.
When I had it done, amniotic membrane treatment was quite hard to get hold of in England, which was part of why I jumped at the trial. The good news is that's changing. The Aston University trial I took part in (registered on ClinicalTrials.gov as NCT04553432) has since been published, and the results were genuinely encouraging: 65% of people had a clinically significant reduction in their symptoms, and 88% improved within a month. The products used, Omnigen and OmniLenz by NuVision, are now available through a growing number of specialist dry eye clinics in the UK. So if it's something you're curious about, it's worth asking a dry eye specialist whether they offer it.
More of my journey: How I got diagnosed → · My IPL experience → · My punctal plugs → · My iKervis experience →