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 am 70 and don’t wear glasses for anything.In my late 20’s I was prescribed reading glasses.I wore them for four years and then developed headaches.Stopped wearing them.I have annual eye tests and my eyes are fine.
The rest of me is ruined.I’d take the glasses in preference.

I’m 54 and became long sighted in my forties and am about a -3 or 4 but also became slightly short sighted too (approx -1) so wear vari focals. DH needed glasses in his 50s but his eyesight is nowhere near as bad as mine even though he’s 3 years older but I put that down to the fact I had a computer based job from the age of 18

I'm minus 4 and 5 in both eyes and have worn contacts for 35 years.
Started to also need reading glasses in last year (I'm 50).
Now have varifocal contact lenses- bloody AMAZING!!

Yep, from 42 I could spot a mouse in a cornfield.......now at 44, I can't see anything close..........depressing

Sorry to say. I am 43 and I got the same news this year. I am just about getting by without reading glasses, but I am very much at the 'hold things at arms length' stage so it won't be long now.

Just to say fil needed eye surgery for medical reasons and guess what, his eye sight is better than when he was younger. he is mid 70s. So go for it if you want laser eye surgery.

I have needed reading glasses since I was 13. When I was 50ish, I started needing specs for distance too so now have bi-focals. I also have a different pair for computer stuff. So it happened the other way round to me. Your optician was making a massive over-generalisation.

Yes this happened to me. I was told it all falls apart at age 47 and I was a classic case as I got my first glasses, varifocals, at exactly that age. My husband, on the other hand, was always short-sighted but, as he has got older and become more long-sighted, although he still needs glasses, his eyesight has improved.

Lol! Right. And taxes.

Yep I'm 46 and wear glasses for everything. Went for a eye test last month and now been referred to the local hospital eye department as suspected glycoma

Not just reading glasses - I need different glasses for computer work and also for the different instruments I play because the set-up wrt where the music is/where the lead stands is different ... and then I go to a venue with a different setup and some glasses work and others don't .. and the lighting is different ... and people stand in different places ...

I have so many pairs of glasses now with different splits and strengths that it's ridiculous.

Yes, it's all deterioration until we die now.

I was 51. If I'm honest I probably could have done with them earlier but covid happened and I delayed my sight test by a year or so as a result.

I am 55 and don't need glasses for reading or anything, I know lots of other people my age who are the same, so not everyone. I had pretty much perfect vision until 50 but have noticed since then that my eyesight is not 20/20 anymore, still fine to read but at night very glowy things look at bit sort of doubled up/hazy i.e. moon, streetlights etc.

Also Optometrist (I got a bit of wood stuck in my eye) said age 50 is when almost everyone needs glasses, I am in Australia so maybe different ha ha?

Happened to me and DH - for me early 40s for him late 40s

I’m 56 and don’t need glasses yet, though I’m coming from a very high baseline. In my early 40s my optician told me I had the eyes of a fighter pilot.

I wish that I had the simple problem of worrying about bifocals. I have Thyroid Eye Disease.Part of the symptoms are blurry and/or double vision and swelling around the eyes. Right now, after going from doctor to doctor, I am being treated by a specialist in this ailment.
So have consider yourself lucky ladies.There are worse things than having to wear bifocals.

47, -6ish in both eyes, tried varifocal contacts but they were hideous so I have a pair of +1 reading glasses for work. I wouldn't need them if I did a different job but I need extremely accurate vision.

My husband is 60 and only just got reading glasses.

My eyesight isn't terrible, but since having DD2 at 41 my reading sight went from perfect to total crap in what felt like a few days, he said my eyes would have been over compensating for a while and suddenly decided to not do that anymore. So I have varifocals now, I've been lucky in that the transition to varifocals was easy. I know quite a few older people that have had laser eye surgery and they just use reading glasses when needed, but don't need them for every day wear. My Mum had two different lenses done when she had laser eye surgery, I believe one was long distant and the other short, anyway whatever it was they were different and purely so she didn't have to have reading glasses.

Yes, I was given the news at my first eye test after my 40th birthday. Cheers for that. I'm -0.75 in one eye, -1.25 in the other, have been for years. No sign of needing readers yet. But I have had a detached retina and the news I have a genetic disorder of the eye so perhaps my eyes are taking it easy on me, for now.

I needed reading glasses at about 43. I don't mind them at all.

I honestly did think that there would be a halcyon time when my long term short sightedness met inevitable age related long sightedness and I would have a year or two of being able to see perfectly. But no! I’m now in varifocals trying to deal with both things in tandem and need to wear reading glasses over my contact lenses to read menus when I’m out. Getting older is a bit rubbish!

You may be ok for a while.

I'm 51 and am only now struggling to read. -7 and -7.5
Optician advised buying a cheap over the counter +1s to wear over my contacts. In good light though I'm absolutely fine still