AIBU to think this can't happen to everyone in their mid 40's?! Surely?

[ThisMustBeMyDream]

Went for my regular eye test today. Regretting that already. I've literally just turned 40. Been blind as a bat since age 10. Wearer of contact lenses since age 12. Sight is -6 in both eyes.
Why is it only today that the optician gleefully told me that by 42, mid 40s at the lastest I will need fucking reading glasses. I'll need some sort of varifocal contact lenses and glasses. Apparently. It happens to EVERYONE. ABSOLUTELY EVERYONE!
Give me some hope. Have you made it to 50 without needing reading glasses?! Especially if you were short sighted already.
Also! Why is this news to me now?! Why has this dreadful secret been kept from me?! I can not stand the thought of my sight being affected and having to mess around with my bloody contact lenses prescription (glasses look awful on me. Every single pair. Trust me, I've tried them all). I only asked the guy about laser eye surgery as now I'm older, I can finally afford it. Only to be told it is basically pointless to have unless in your 20s as its a waste of money due to the long sightedness developing in your 40s!
Ugh.

I was -6 in both eyes until 2004 when I had laser surgery. Then had 20/20 vision until a year ago when started to lost a bit of crispness in distance vision. So wear glasses of -0.5/-1 now for driving and for reading slides etc from distance in presentations at work. Don't need any glasses for reading. I'm 50 in July.

Yep I needed reading glasses at 42

Reading glasses are not a big deal. You can put them over your contacts and they are very cheap to buy. You can have a pair in your bag, your car and every room of your house.

I'm 46, no reading glasses yet. But I have a slight prescription for distance. Only wear glasses for tv/theatre/driving. But I notice it's a bit hard though not impossible to read/see things close up eg thread a needle with my glasses on and I find myself taking my glasses off to be able to see better close up. Presumably this is the start of eventually needing reading glasses.

I was very short sighted until I was 67, about 4 years ago. I used to wear mono vision contact lenses with the lens in the left eye configured for reading and the lens in the right eye configured for distance. Worked really well, didn't need glasses except for the rare occasions when I didn't wear my contacts, needed distance glasses, was able to read fine without any glasses.
Then I developed cataracts in both eyes (the joys of getting old). Needed to have the surgery. It has worked brilliantly. The lovely surgeon said I could have the same arrangement with my new artificial lens implants, so left eye is still for near vision/reading and right eye is for distance. Don't need glasses. I'm not short sighted any more.
I have a friend who has chosen to have the lenses in her eyes replaced with varifocal implanted lenses. She will never get cataracts and never need glasses.

Exactly the same

No it's not tue. Just all packages, menus and labels available for those over mid 40 are made with smaller text so we can't read them easily.

But seriously, yes all my friends and I squinted over menus from our mid 40s onwards. I later got different contacts lenses (worn from my teen years) that are regularly readjusted to make it possible for me to read small print without glasses, or in half decent light, anyway.

Relax op - the average age for needing reading glasses is 42 (apparently some part of the eye starts to harden, making it harder to focus). I just got my first pair aged 51, so it's not necessarily a done deal in your 40s :)

So glad I'm not the only one. I went from pretty much perfect vision to not being able to read small print on packets etc scarily quickly. I developed a stigmatism in one eye and no longer need to read with one eye shut since I got my reading glasses!

I'm 48, don't need them yet, would like to think that I never will, but realistically....

i've always been short sighted and have noticed that I can no longer see close up stuff whilst I'm wearing those glasses, so there's clearly been a change of sorts, I guess it's likely that the full-on change is in the pipeline.

I've been shortsighted since my twenties. Needed reading glasses in my mid-fifties. A clever optician worked out if I wore one contact lens, I would only need glasses for driving. The brain works it out somehow - one eye does distance and the other does the reading.

Same here. -6 in both eyes for many years, then at 41 was told I was on the point of needing varifocals. Refused to do it for about 2 years, then had to give in. I've had two opticians tell me that virtually everyone ends up longsighted in the end, but that when you're as short sighted as me, it is usually delayed and doesn't kick in til 50+ 🙄.
I know it's a pain in the arse, plus expensive - glasses with expensive lenses, fannying around with expensive varifocal contacts (throw astigmatism into the mix, as I have, and it gets way more of a pain with contacts) - BUT there are so way more worse things that can happen sight wise as you age (eg glaucoma - my Dad started with it at 40 and has now lost much of his vision - and macular degeneration). Without wanting to be overly dismissive, at least you've had decent vision, albeit with help, throughout your life. Think of kids and youngsters who have lived a life with proper serious vision problems and maybe this will put your stuff into perspective. (I honestly don't mean to sound like a twat, just trying to provide a bit of balance).

I am 65 and have glasses for driving, but I can drive without them. It just makes things slightly clearer. I have monovision - one eye sees close up and the other does distance apparently.
My knees on the other hand ….

Exactly me! But I’m -4.5. I’m going to have my lenses replaced when I retire in two years time .. no need for lenses of glasses then!

I havent RTFT. But yes got to 50, went for an eye test. The optician looked at me sweetly, smiled and said "have you been struggling for long?". Yes of course I had been! She knew, I knew, game was up. 10 years on - cant read anything without glasses. So annoying!

I’ve always had good eyesight. First got reading/screen glasses at 40. Now 43 have noticed a deterioration in near sightedness this year and close reading of small text is really quite uncomfortable without my glasses. But I’m yet to use them habitually. I slightly dread needing varifocals but people do tend to get used to them after 3/4 weeks. Just be glad if nothing worse happens and grateful for the sight you do have. 🤷🏻‍♀️

yup

Eye specialist here....
You may not need a reading prescription.
It can be that you may need to take your glasses off to read

46 - going to collect my varifocal (spelling?) lenses next week. Been ok till now😒🤓….

Yep me too after 40 needed both distance and readers, can't do lenses or varifocals so constantly swapping which is challenging but I do like wearing them luckily. Had some disasters when not wearing readers. Usually buying random supermarket items by mistake, using various aerosols under arms in place of deodorant or hairspray, toothpaste on bug bites, the list goes on....

Get your eye lasered! The glasses for long sightedness is for reading. You won't need to wear them all the time.

I got mine done in my 20s. Well worth the money

Laser surgery in my 40s restored my sight for about 10 years, but it does fade as lenses harden with age. I've now had lens replacement surgery and everything is perfect. Having laser surgery first makes the lens replacement slightly more complicated to get right, so I would go straight for lens replacement.

One of my friends, in their 40s, has just had to have surgery to remove a cataract. The surgeon said that occasionally they develop in children…. So, could be worse? And declining eyesight means you don’t see your wrinkles?

My colleague wears one short sight contact lens and one long sight contact lens. So you might be able to avoid glasses.

I'm 45, started squinting at my phone about 18 months ago and got some computer glasses which really helped with long hours in front of a screen. Last few months I've embraced cheap readers as well, mainly for low light. I'm typing this on my phone without them and I can make it all out but I'm aware of the effort it takes. And the phone is on my lap 🤨 My prescription on the office lenses just went up from +1.00 to +1.50. The optician said the initial progression of presbyopia is pretty fast but then slows down after +2.00 or so. Well, yay. Thankfully my distance vision is absolutely fine, so I put up with the readers gladly. DH has myopia and got his first varifocals when I got my office lenses. He often pushes his glasses up on his forehead to see close up though, absolutely the opposite to me!

I work in the industry and the loss of near vision (presbyopia) after 40+ is due to your lens becoming less flexible. It cannot change shape enough to bring close objects into sharp focus. For distance vision, the issue is more the shape of your eye and where the image is focused in relation to the retina. Hence you can have either short or long sight, or perfect distance vision, AND be unable to focus close up. Joy.