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 ask again, what is so awful about needing reading glasses?l

51 here and do not yet need reading glasses - hoorah!!

I went for my 1st eye test at 48 and was told I needed glasses for driving.

Yup everyone.

I have terrible eyesight and wear a strong prescription, and may have to go to progressive lenses. Right now I am just taking off my glasses and putting things up to my nose. I figure I can get by a few more years that way.

How is it at age 42 that you've only just discovered this and are shocked that the optician hadn't mentioned it?!

Same for me, also 48 and contact lens prescription has been changed to improve reading. I do tend to read in bed without my lenses in a lot. DP is also 48 and doesn’t wear glasses at all. We do both struggle with the menu in a particular cocktail bar which is pink with white writing but tbh we know it well enough to not need to read it now 😂

Yep -8 here. Used to wear varifocal lenses but then it got to the point where they couldn't correct my sight sufficiently to be able to read so had to buy reading glasses too. I gave up and just wear varifocal glasses now. It gets worse though - I now need a separate pair of varifocals to use my computer for work. I cannot wait to get cataracts because hopefully the op for that will make my sight better. Don't start me on the E.R.M. in my left eye

I'm 55 and short sighted, I can't read the tiny writing on the bottom of a phone charger, but other than that I have no need to wear reading glasses.
One issue with being short sighted is I can no longer read close up with my distance glasses, which isn't an issue as I only use them for driving.

Happened to me. I went for lense replacement surgery consultations & was told I'd still need readers after that! I just stopped fighting it & got varifocals. They're great.

@ThisMustBeMyDream I need reading glasses but after trying varifocal contacts, I now have a monovision prescription for my lenses (am blind as a bat without them). One eye does distance, one does reading (basically they take a third off one lens’s prescription. Doesn’t suit everyone and isn’t 100% but I don’t have to wear reading glasses. Surgery not an option for me but not due to age - so you should be able to have it (I am a lot older than you).

And yes it does happen to everyone - it is to do with the lenses getting less flexible.

This is something I want to look (haha) into when my reading vision goes caput.

I was mildly short sighted. Now in mid 50s, I should probably use reading glasses all the time, but I'm not organised enough to do that. I can still read a normal sized font in a novel - just. And I make the text on my screen big enough to see easily. I only really start to worry for instructions on food packaging. That's definitely a job for younger eyes.

@SanFranByAir and @Tarantella6 that is called ‘monovision’ prescription and is what I have

I am 48 and have never ever needed glasses before, but tonight I have ordered some 0.75 reading glasses to try, as noticed a decline in last 6 months or so. Aging is crap, but better than the alternative I guess!

Sorry, OP. 40th birthday seemed to be a kickstarter for all sorts of physical deterioration, including vision.

@Justsewsew yes during cataract op they will replace the lens. I didn’t get on with multifocal lenses but the monovision works for me - not all opticians offer it.

Yep, totally normal. Got first varifocals at 44

I'm 65 - I've been shortsighted - more in one eye than the other - all my life. My eyes have changed - I can no longer focus on my fringe to cut it (so I use the mirror), but I am aslo less shortsighted than I was - my distance vision has improved. As for reading - no problems at all so far - I have to read stuff for DH (60) who used to have 20/20 vision, but now needs glasses to read. Luck of the draw, I guess!

Yep. Word for word pretty much what my optician gleefully said to me two years ago when I turned 40.

And the annoying thing is she's bloody right. I have to hold the phone away from me now if it's too close it goes all blurry but weirdly I'm short sighted so that's never been the case before. I ended up buying cheap ones from tk maxx! 😅

I wear contacts for short sightedness. I can still read without reading glasses, though I did have to change the prescription of my contacts slightly a couple of years ago as reading was a bit blurry. However, I can read without any contacts in at all. I'm almost 52.

I’m over 70, -8 in both eyes. Have worn glasses since aged 8, first pair of contacts were my 18th birthday present. I had reading glasses in my late fifties and really only started wearing them regularly in my early 60s. I have never had bifocal contacts suggested. I reckon you’ve a few years yet.
i dread having to go to glasses.

Bloody hell. Can't keep up with this thread, you're all on fire (clearly all have your readers on!).
Some good news... my mother informs me at the grand old age of 66 - she doesn't need reading glasses! Distance glasses only... so I have a little hope!
This may be totally vain... but I have lost 6.5st, and am now a size 8-10. I've had a 15 month long treatment on Isotretinoin for acne and have perfect skin (and it also cured my greasy hair as it dries out your skin!). I'm the fittest I've ever been in my life. Running, weightlifting.... etc.
I've felt so good putting all this work in on myself. I have always looked younger. I can pass for late 20s/early 30s. My 22 year old son is always mistaken for my brother 🤣. I just want to enjoy feeling good about myself for a while! This wasn't the news I wanted to hear at this point on my journey to a new me! I genuinely do not suit glasses. Everyone who has ever seen me in them is in total agreement. My face shape is all wrong for them, my skin coloring doesn't work with any colours (black, clear, reds, greens, pinks, you name it, I've tried it!). My current pair are from the kids range as I have a very small face. They are still too big a lens for my face. I am making myself sound like an absolute weirdo! I'm not, I swear! I have exactly the same issue with sunglasses. Nothing suits me. There is a reason I was swiftly put on to contact lenses as soon as it became clear I needed to wear glasses all the time!
I don't care if I'm vain! I've worked damn hard and been through some gruelling treatment for this! It's my time to bloody shine ffs!

I was a month after my 40th birthday. Varifocals all the way!

But that DOES mean you need a reading prescription - ie a different prescription to your distance prescription. (Whether you actually buy a pair of glasses to that prescription or not!)

Also, the OP wears contact lenses all the time because she hates glasses on herself, so she can’t just take her contact lenses out every time she wants to look at her phone.

To be honest, as I'd always worn glasses from aged 4 to read, and have never had perfect vision, it doesn't bother me. My longsightedness is just "me", along with my high frequency hearing loss from birth too (I had a lisp that went along with this but luckily speech therapy cured that).

I actually didn't mind these health issues that affected both senses. I would have been able to cope ok with them (i had a squint in my left eye that was corrected around aged 4 too). The shittiest thing health-wise that happened over the past decade was my head injury and post concussion syndrome, then being injured by off label psychotropic drugs to help after. This gave me a permanent neurological involuntary movement disorder called tardive dyskinesia that is a bit like Tourette's and Parkinson's disease combined 😳💔😢

So, where i could have been ok with hearing and sight issues, I've now got a brain injured permanently and I'm in perimenopause too. Life is just peachy! 😅🤣😅😂😅 And I've only got 30-40 more years of life (if I get that far lol) with this stuff... yay, I love that prospect! 🤣😂🤣

You don't get long sighted as you age. Instead, you get presbyopia. They're often confused but are quite different because absolutely everyone gets presbyopia, whether long sighted, short sighted or with hitherto perfect vision. Hence short sighted people can have presbyopia but you can't be short sighted and long sighted at the same time. Presbyopia is caused by the eye muscles getting tired. Long sightedness has a different cause.