A housewife has left medics stunned after she started crying tears of blood due to a rare condition.
The concerned 25-year-old woman, who has been pictured but not named, sought help at the Post Graduate Institute of Medical Education and Research in Chandigarh, India, where she was diagnosed with haemolacria.
The exact cause of the condition is uncertain, but doctors think the fact that the patient was menstruating at the time could be important.
The condition is the same as that suffered by James Bond villain, Le Chiffre, who wept blood from a damaged vessel in his left eye in Casino Royale.
Dr Soumitra Ghosh, who documented the case in a new study, said: “Haemolacria means bloody tears. Patients will have blood coming out from one or both eyes.
“Blood coming out with tears is a very alarming clinical entity both for the patient and physician. If you see blood coming out from the eyes, you can imagine how scary a situation it is.”
Dr Ghosh said: “Haemolacria is a rare clinical condition. It has multiple causes. One of the causes is vicarious menstruation.
“Vicarious menstruation is defined as cyclical bleeding in other extrauterine organs like the nose, eyes, ears, intestine, lungs, nipples and skin.
“Haemolacria due to vicarious menstruation is very, very rare. Only a few cases have been reported in medical literature so far.”
He continued: “It is considered to be a response of the eyes’ blood vessels to hormones.
“Certain ocular and orbital tissues are seen to be hormonally responsive.
“Oestrogen and progesterone can increase the permeability of the capillaries resulting in hyperaemia, congestion and secondary bleeding from extrauterine tissue.”
The patient was treated with oral oestrogen-progesterone contraceptive pills which appears to have stopped her crying tears of blood again.
