i think i need glasses :(

[germyrabbit]

not for all the time but reading, but i'm only 43 :( is that normal?

yup...it's called presbyopia.

get some reading specs and you will be able to see all the small stuff!

Some babies gave glasses.

*have

aww, bless you - im 41 and have been wearing glasses for over ten years. All the time - i like my glasses, they make me look clever :)

Yes, dh was early forties when he started needing reading glasses, normal apparently.

I'll be fecked I'm already a -5.50!

I like wearing glasses. I can operate from behind my little 'shield'

so i guess i just go to the local specsavers and get some, are they expensive?

Find out what prescription you need in store and then shop around for the actual glasses online! Lots of deals out there.

Yes! If you are on tax credits or any other benefits, you will get a NHS voucher and many will be free or significantly cheaper. Spec savers have a bogof offer which includes prescription sunglasses but you may not need these. You can exchange that for better lenses if you dont want two pairs. They start from about £40 and go up to well, anything you like, once you get to designer frames. But if you only have reading glasses, stick to plain and cheap!

Yes presbyopia appears usually in the early 40s. I'm 41 and have definitely noticed a decline in my vision in the last year or so but still pretending that I can read fine

i just thought i would need these in my 50s not 40s :(

i spend a few minutes today trying to thread a needle until i realised it was upside down

Thank you for this thread, I have just realised I've forgotten to remove my contact lens. Not only did my 40s bring fading sight, they brought a failure in grey cells too.

I'm 35, only a few years left for me too.

Sometimes specsavers offer free eye tests or £10 eye tests. Often in the local paper.

Bumping to say that I'm 44 and the time has come to go and get myself some glasses. I've noticed a decline in my vision when faced with smallish print in the last few months - I got out a dictionary just now for the first time in a while and found that difficult.

It also seems early to me - that I should have been taking more vitamins or spending less time at a computer or something. But my mother was in her early forties when she needed reading glasses, too. I suppose it goes with the territory of worsening skin etc. :) (Bit harder to judge the falloff in grey cells - I've always been scatter-brained!)

here we are, Wikipedia - The first signs of presbyopia ? eyestrain, difficulty seeing in dim light, problems focusing on small objects and/or fine print ? are usually first noticed between the ages of 40 and 50.

Had never heard the term presbyopia before.

43 next month and resorted to an off the shelf pair recently as can't thread a needle. I used to work in an Eye Hospital and remember them saying that it started changing at 40 so was prepared. It has got worse quite quickly the last few months.

and the " momentarily blurred vision when transitioning between viewing distances" seems to have come on relatively suddenly. I hardly ever feel actual eyestrain, however. Probably good to get glasses before I do.

I was surprised how fast it's been as well, Wynken. I was trying to thread a needle for DD yesterday and finding it a fair bit harder than the last time I tried one so small, which was a couple of months ago.

Any tips from your time at the Eye Hospital? (about general eye care?)

I noticed a decline in vision for reading and close work at 40 - its right up there with grey hair and wrinkles. As a short term fix, buy some of those cheapy reading glasses from poundland or even primark and see how you get on.

Ive found that I lose/sit on/break so many pairs of glasses that I have resorted to cheap and cheerful until such time as I need more than +2.

Pretty normal I think. Just to mention that when I first noticed I was having probs reading smallish print, I bought an off the peg pair in Boots. They didn't seem to help much and I ended up getting some made in Specsavers where I get my distance specs from. They said because I have quite bad astigmatism the over the counter ones wouldn't have taken into account the shape of the eyeball.

I wear specs/contacts for distance, but never needed readers, until a few weeks ago when I noticed a quite sudden, though not massive change in reading very small print. I mentioned it at a check up for glaucoma. They asked my age -57 - tittered politely, and said I was very fortunate to have got so far without readers and most people experience this change in their early 40s.