Vision effects?

[Nuuni]

My husband is grumbling because he is having vision issues, his eyesight changed since he started T and he is not due normally for an eye doctor visit yet. He asked me to find out if testosterone changes eyesight, since I was talking about second puberty and "That's when I had to start wearing glasses in the first place!"

[Kylo]

It's said that the shape of the lens is changed by either testosterone or estrogen being the dominant hormone in the body. But I haven't been able to find out much information about it.

Myself, I have a cis partner who started needing glasses about 4 years ago... he has since needed to get stronger ones. About the time he was getting his, I remember my own eyesight was blurring at the edges and this was what caused him to go get his eyes tested in the first place because he had it too. I held off on getting an eye test - in fact I don't think I've ever had one as an adult... but I put up with the blurry edges thinking I would eventually get glasses when I could no longer read the number plates on cars from a distance. I started T not so long ago and to be honest my vision feels as if it has improved slightly. It hasn't got any worse, anyway, and I don't feel as if I strain my eyes to see things any more.

In studies it is higher estrogen that is more strongly correlated with shortsightedness than testosterone is. In other words more women are shortsighted than men, statistically. . .

[FTMax]

My eyesight has not changed at all.

[Dena]

Depends on your genetics. Testosterone really messed up my vision and switching to estrogen shifted my vision again. A visit to the eye doctor once a year may be required for a few years until the changes even out. The best time to check his  vision is when you are in a dimly  lit room because the more the iris closes, the sharper vision becomes. Try some text 1 inch high at 20 feet and some text at normal reading distance. If there are issues with that, time for the eye doctor.

[Kylo]

Sometimes it can be down to a bad habit of spending too much time in front of a computer or books rather than anything else - I noticed my vision go downhill in 2005 when I started spending a lot of time using computers for work as well as in spare time.

It trained my distance of sharpest focus to be 1 meter - about the distance of the screen away.

Once I noticed this I tried to take more time out from using it and do things that meant I'd need to look around more or at different distances to get my eyes to improve. It didn't completely reverse the problem - but it did seem to help in that my eyes haven't got any worse. Where I know others who keep spending most of their day in front of screens whose eyesight gets worse and worse.

[Elis]

Kinda disappointed that T hasn't improved my eyesight now; I still can't see much of anything without glasses. I don't think my eyesight has gotten worse within the last few years though thankfully.

I spent a lot of time in front of the computer too growing up so that's a possibility but I think in my case it's unfortunately a genetic thing. My brother needed to wear glasses at just 6 years of age; both mum and dad have to wear glasses.

[Kylo]

I guess if hormones were known to usually improve eyesight, it would be a regular avenue of treatment out there, but it isn't so I'm guessing the effects are minimal. Everyone's eyesight tends to get worse with age, and bad habits...  the shape of your whole eye does alter eventually and probably the lens too if you are training it in a certain way. By wearing glasses you train yourself to need them, too, which is one reason I put up with less than perfect focus on everything as long as possible... I'll need them eventually, but for now I'll try to get by without.

If I put my SO's glasses on everything is in super-sharp focus, which is nice, but I'm gonna try holding off as long as I can until my vision sucks too much not to have to get some glasses. 

[Elis]

I guess if hormones were known to usually improve eyesight, it would be a regular avenue of treatment out there, but it isn't so I'm guessing the effects are minimal. Everyone's eyesight tends to get worse with age, and bad habits...  the shape of your whole eye does alter eventually and probably the lens too if you are training it in a certain way. By wearing glasses you train yourself to need them, too, which is one reason I put up with less than perfect focus on everything as long as possible... I'll need them eventually, but for now I'll try to get by without.

If I put my SO's glasses on everything is in super-sharp focus, which is nice, but I'm gonna try holding off as long as I can until my vision sucks too much not to have to get some glasses.

But isn't it possible not wearing glasses will make your eyesight worse because you're straining your eyes to see things out of focus?

[Kylo]

It's possible, I think that's why some people do get glasses to stop straining to see things with more definition, but I don't seem to do that. If I did, I think I'd be getting eye strain, headaches, etc.

[JeanetteLW]

  I can agree with Kylo on the computer screen fatigue. I  find my vision blurry and sometimes double after spending long periods in front of a computer or phone display. I know my age has something to do with it also. Eyes like the body take a toll with age.
  Several months ago I suddenly got a big nasty floater and a snowstorm of tiny black dots in my vision. I got seen by an eye doctor the day after and it turned out to be a small tear in my retina requiring laser surgery to tack down the edges so it doesn't get worse. In the process they told me I have macular degeneration in both eyes. I take eye vitamins to slow it's progress. I fear it causing legal blindness as it did in my mom.
  The important thing is to get your visual check ups and see your ophthalmologist when something changes in your vision. It could be serious and need immediate attention.

  Hugs,
   Jeanette

[rorythedinosaur]

I experience blurry vision the first 2 days after my shot. Lights bother me pretty much, too. My eye doctor saw me last month and said everything's fine and did not changed my prescription glasses (i got miopia but VERY slight). But i experience very nasty eye fatigue after shots, and more dryness in my eyes, too... so, maybe it's somehow related?

[krobinson103]

My eyes were always bad. The lenses were the wrong shape since birth. Starting E has done nothing to change that, though I have noticed an increased ability in spacial awareness - catching etc is just plain easier. I really can't explain why that would be.

[widdershins]

My vision was already changing a lot before I started T a year ago, and I've needed a new prescription every year for the past few years regardless. (My optometrist tells me that I'm young enough that this is normal. *shrug*) There's no real way of knowing whether or how I've been affected by T. It's interesting to learn there can be an effect though.

[Oblivion]

My visions pretty bad, around -4 in both eyes. I've been on T for 8 months and it's only worsened slightly since going on (dropped 0.25) but that sort of deterioration has been normal for me over the course of my life. I don't see why hormones would alter your vision, from my knowledge they're not connected in any way. Your eyesight changing is down to your genes and how you look after your eyes, if you're constantly straining your eyes they're going to get worse, etc.

Just saw another post about dry eyes and my eyes have become more dry on T but I wear contacts that I wear for too long and dry eyes have always been a problem for me so its not much more of a bother.

[rorythedinosaur]

another strange thing happened with my eyes, is that i developed a neuropathy in the eye. my eye doctor told me my sight was ok, and my eye pressure (which scared me) was, too. He could only diagnose this pain in the nerve, and gave me a vitamin B supplement (which is not working, BTW). More in general, all the nerves in my body are absolutely messed up. I got pains in tendons ligaments and nerves and neuropathy signs and symptoms like numbness, pickling, and so on. This seems to be absolutely strange and it is never mentioned in informative booklets about T. I am starting to think i am developing something auto-immune triggered by T.

[SeptagonScars]

I've had glasses since I was 15, being slightly near-sighted. Since starting T I really didn't go to the eye doctor often, actually not until I was over 3 years on T. But when I did, apparently my vision had gotten slightly better, but not enough to not need glasses. Just a new, weaker pair.

I sit by my computer most hours of the day, every day, but it doesn't seem to have affected my vision negatively. Because I can see relatively well short distance and I don't spend much time outdoors, I most often don't bother wearing my glasses. Also, they chafe uncomfortably on my nose bridge. So that was why I didn't get my vision checked for 3 years. It wasn't until I had lost my old glasses after moving apartments when I suddenly needed them for school.

[amberwaves]

I have had glasses since I was in 2nd grade and my eyesight is pretty crap.  I wear contact lenses almost exclusively.  I got an eye exam about 2 months ago.  I have been on E for about 18 months and this was the first eye exam since starting.  My vision was ever so slightly worse (which is normal for me).  The Dr told me that my contacts were Ill fitting and loose.  Turns out the shape had changed a bit though it seemingly had no effect on vision.  Not sure if it works that way for Them,  but it's definitely a thing that can happen on E.