Is corneal sensitivity sex dependent?

Purpose: to determine whether corneal sensitivity is different between the two genders. methods: corneal sensitivity of 130 normal volunteers,including 77 women and 53 men aged 20-35 years,with no history of previous ocular surgery was measured using the cochet-bonnet esthesiometer. measurements were done on five corneal regions: central,nasal,inferior,temporal and superior. the findings were compared between men and women using the non-parametric mann-whitney u test. results: mean age of male subjects was 28.0 years and that of female participants was 26.8 years (p = 0.063). there was a significant difference in corneal sensitivity between men and women in the superior (p = 0.013),temporal (p = 0.020) and inferior (p = 0.046) regions. there was no significant difference in corneal sensitivity in the central (p = 0.862) and nasal (p = 0.273) regions. conclusion: except for the central and nasal regions,corneal sensitivity is significantly higher in men as compared to women. the reason for this difference is not yet evident. © 2015 journal of ophthalmic and vision research.