Menopausal eye opticians?

[Violetviolin]

Can anyone recommend an optician for mid life menopausal eyes. Particularly very dry eyes, blurry eyes ( non diabetic), eyes that need varifocal correction and eyes with severe astigmatism. I currently use Boots opticians but not that impressed with them. They don’t seem keen to find solutions for me and I’m blundering around with thick lensed glasses, unable to longer tolerate contact lenses and having to take them off my glasses to see closely. I’m in North London but happy to travel in to central London for somewhere good.

You should be able to find somewhere good more locally - probably an independent opticians rather than a chain. Any optician worth their salt should be able to help you with dry eye syndrome, not to mention the other conditions you mention.

I'm interested to read your experience @Violetviolin

I posted about my similar vision changes.

I'm short sighted with astigmatisms in both eyes but 1 eye is far worse.

Do you know what your prescription figures are?

My contact lens prescription is:

RIGHT | Base Curve: 8.6 | Diameter: 14.5 | Power: -6.00
| Cylinder: -0.75 | Axis: 10

LEFT | Base Curve: 8.6 | Diameter: 14.5 | Power: -6.00
| Cylinder: -2.25 | Axis: 170

Same as you my one eye is significantly worse!
I’m practically blind without my glasses.
thankfully none of my 3 kids seem to have inherited it.

This isn’t a varifocal prescription… there is no reading add listed.
Aaaah I see it’s your contact lens prescription. Were you not recommended thinned down varifocals? No one needs to wear thick glasses if you order a high index lens

Yes I am the same. It is rubbish one of my DD's has inherited it too.

I'm short sighted with astigmatism. I get mine from ASDA opticians. They include varifocal and ultra thin as standard (Reactolite is extra). They are much cheaper than Specsavers and Boots (I think these are now following suit with including VF to try and compete). The staff in mine are lovely and help with choosing frames. They also have amazing opening hours. You might not see the same opticians twice but they have always been very thorough.

For dry eyes try Hycosan eye drops or carmellose eye drops e.g. Carmize.
Boots definitely do high density varifocal lenses. You probably know this but you need a smaller frame to reduce edge thickness. You need to find the qualified dispensing optician for advice. Otherwise an independent optician may be best.

Are there really opticians specialising in menopausal eye conditions? A qualified optician will be all you need ! My daughter’s prescription is -10, now that is bad! -6 shouldn’t be a problem to find a solution for.

@Violetviolin

My axis/stigmatism is 70 and 120.

Doesn't the power being -6.00 mean that both eyes are the same though?

My glasses prescription gives different info to your lens prescription but I'm relatively new to all this.

Has it worsened since your last test? If so do you know by how many points it's changed?

@helibirdcomp

Did you notice a deterioration in your eyesight? If so, what did the points change from/to?

Mine seemed to change radically.

Do you know what your prescription is?

I have a mixed response. My right eye ( the stronger one) is getting better. I understand this is normal with aging eyes as the muscles that are pulling it out of shape get weaker. I don't have the old prescriptions to give you a comparison. but guessing about - 5 to -3.5. However my weak eye is now -8.5 I think before I got old it was around -6. I am also developing cataracts so low light vision is a lot poorer. Thank goodness for adjustable fonts on e books!

I’ve DM’d you

Thank you all so much - sorry for the delayed response. I’ll try and answer your questions. Yes that’s my contact lens prescription ( no idea where my glasses one is atm😂) but the minus cylinder ones are for the power and my left eye is weakest.

i know my situation could be worse but I grew up hating my glasses - my mum always made me take them off during photos and I’ve always been self conscious about the way they make my eyes look smaller. Even with thinner lenses … I wear my glasses everyday but the inner me can’t see past the 6 year old girl in blue nhs bottle rimmed specs 😅😂 . They also make putting make up on tricky!

I don’t currently have bifocals as the boots optician I went to said he didn’t think he could do them with my prescription and keep the lens thinness which I think is a bit of bull.
he also didn’t think he could get a good bifocal contact lens to suit me.

My eyes are definitely changing - I think the Presbyopia that all middle aged people get is altering my prescription and my eyes are very sensitive to bright light ( hate driving at night with the glare).

Thank you for the eye drop recommendations- they sound more hard core than the ones I’ve tried. I’ll definitely give them a go if only do I can stop looking like a short sighted librarian and wear my lenses on date night!

Find a new optician. I was with my local Boots opticians for years. Thinned varifocals no problem at all. Shortsighted with astigmatism. My prescription was -13. I can't remember details because 3 years ago I had refractive lens replacement surgery so no glasses needed now. I find opticians vary greatly in terms of their dispensing opticians so definitely shop around.

As I understand it the cylinder is added to the power in a particular direction (axis) to compensate for the astigmatism

Are you fussed about cost? Most opticians would be able to give a high index (thinned) varifocal to that Rx- it's really not complex.

For contact lenses, you need a multifocal toric which will be expensive and there are only a couple of (safe) manufacturers. Unfortunately contact lenses take moisture from your eyes, so if you can't get the dry eye under control, you'll likely not get on with any.

For the dry eye: very normal during perimenopause/menopause. Yet another thing we ladies get to experience.

However, 86% of dry eye (including perimenopausal) is evaporative dry eye, so a warm compress (a proper microwavable one, not a wet flannel that won't retain any heat) for 10mins followed by lid massage can improve and/or alleviate symptoms. Plus dry eye drops- something with at least 0.2% sodium hyaluronate- AT LEAST 3/4 times per day, even if you're not wearing lenses.