"Birthmark' at back of eye-triage as urgent

[Candacej]

Hi I attended the optician for a checkup after being a bit concerned about my vision. He found a 'birthmark' behind the retina on my left eye. He said it was flat and he would do a routine referral to opthalmology and they would either dismiss or see me in about 6 weeks.
They called me this morning, 2 days later and want to see me in 24 hours.
Has anyone had a' birthmark' or 'eye freckle' at the back of their eye.
Any experience or advice welcome please.
I am panicking.

DH does, he has a condition called NF1 and has a freckle in one eye. It causes no problems at all, he gets it checked at the hospital yearly.

Me!

I have a mole on the back of one of my eyeballs. They noticed it about 10 years ago at my opticians appointment.

I go every year for an appointment, just to specsavers, and they use some machine to take a photo of it to make sure it hasn't grown or changed. It never has.

They were initially quite excited, the optician called a couple of other opticians in to have a look.

Apparently I have a huge one at the back of my eye too. Had a referral and they did a load of tests at the hospital. (The stuff they put in your eye to make the pupil dilate is very stingy!) They said it was fine, but like pp’s DH they will check it yearly.

My brother had this - he was checked and it was nothing. I don't think he gets reviewed at the hospital, although his optician would of course refer him again if it changed.

Yeah, I've got one.

When I changed opticians a couple of years ago, the new optician was fairly thorough in checking it out etc, he was initially a bit concerned. But it's just there, photographs are taken every year to make sure it hasn't changed. Think my sister has one too.

Actually I think my DD has one too 🤔

Yes. I have a freckle on the back of my eye too. I get my eyes checked frequently anyway - contact lenses, and it's fine.
Probably does just need checking to be on the safe side.

Thank you for all your replies, really helpful to know about other peoples experiences. I am thinking worst case scenario but will try calm down!

Good luck, let us know how you get on

Hi, just an update on how it went today. The 'birthmark' as the optician called it, or 'mole' as the ophthalmologist called it is officially a choroidal nevus, I understand. It was checked today and apparently doesn't have any suspicious features but I have been referred on routinely to the retinal specialist as it is on my retina, he did reassure me that he wasn't worried, so I feel much better.
Thank you all for your helpful responses yesterday, much appreciated!

Phew! You must feel relieved.

Good news

That's good, there can be a few signs on a naevus which do make it slightly more suspicious, such as drusen (white bits) or it being raised up or having an uneven border.

I referred one recently that seemed normal to me on the usual pathway (but needed checking as it was quite big), it was escalated too and the patient was seen much more quickly than I expected. I think there is a big drive to ensure younger people's health outcomes are not changed by COVID.

I've also got an eye freckle only discovered when the options got a new fancy photo dodah its checked every eye test but nothing has changed in the 10 years that I've known about it.

Yay - glad you got good news OP, that's a weight off your mind. Have a great weekend now!

I got told I have one of these seven years ago.
Sufficiently petrified me that I haven't been back to the optician since.
And I'm not touch wood dead yet.