I'm very near-sighted and also have astigmatism, which makes it a real pain to get proper vision correction. I want to get some input, so I'll go over my options:
Glasses: My glasses correct my astigmatism pretty well, and give me sharper vision than contacts if I'm looking straight ahead through the lenses. The problem is they're very thick, almost a centimeter on the outer edge, and they're also very curved. This means that anything not exactly in front of the lenses looks warped. For example, if I'm pointing the lenses at these words and then glance to the edge of my monitor, the straight top edge looks convex, almost as if I'm looking at it through a fish-eye lens, and I get double vision since the image coming through my two lenses looks very different going into each eye and I can't focus it into one image. I also get a red and blue outline to everything not directly in front of the lenses, too, and I have no idea why. Everything looks I'm seeing it through a funhouse mirror unless it's directly in front of my face, and I'm not exaggerating. I tend to use glasses for watching TV since my astigmatism makes it hard to make out fine details, but I can't see very well in any other situation. Or at least, my vision is functional, but there's so much distortion that it's painfully obvious that I'm not seeing things as they really look.
Additionally, glasses really make my head and face sore, and the primary reason I got contacts in high school is because after years of wearing glasses, I never got used to them and I wanted to stop constantly having a headache. Also, because the prescription is so strong, you can see around the sides of my head through them, and they make my eyes look a lot smaller. This has me worried that if I wear glasses after transition, it'll make it difficult to make my face look nice and feminine, since they "break" the flow of my face and make my eyes look tiny. I don't really care about the visual appearance of having frames, but I don't like how they distort my face.
Contacts: Contacts give me a wider field of vision, they don't warp straight edges, they don't put a colored outline on everything, they're more visually appealing, and they're much more comfortable than glasses. However, they don't correct my astigmatism very well. This is fine most of the time, but it's gotten hard to watch TV or play video games with them on because any bright, sharp object on a dark background looks like it has a "halo" around it. It's even gotten harder to drive at night with them on, because of the halos around car lights and street lights. This has me worried that I'm going to have to give them up at some point if my vision deteriorates any farther. My prescription for nearsightedness has been stable for years, but I think my astigmatism is getting worse.
Lasik: I've thought about getting Lasik, because it sounds wonderful to have perfect vision all the time without the shortcomings of either glasses or contacts. However, I've read that it doesn't correct astigmatism very well, so I'm not sure it's actually possible to have all my vision problems corrected. I'm also worried about it being botched, I've read that some people get "halos" around lights and can't drive at night, which sounds like what I already have but way worse. I've also read on other threads here that HRT can affect your vision, so I might not be able to get it anyway for a long time after going on HRT.
I'm just getting frustrated, because it seems like my vision is so bad that I have no good options. I wanted to know what other people's experiences are with corrective lenses and lasik, especially if you have very bad vision.
I don't know how well Lasik works as I haven't had it and the reports I have received from others didn't tell me how bad their astigmatism was. I am a life long glasses wearer with a coke bottle lens for one eye. They have modern plastic that greatly reduce the thickness and the weight of the glasses however it is more costly than your cheap lenses. If you have a good eye doctor (not one associated with a chain store) and if they have an optical shop in the office, see what they can do for you. I had nothing but trouble with the chain stores but eye surgeons with an optical shop have worked well for me. Last but not least, normally a rainbow pattern indicates they are using a lens material that's cheap and has a different index of refraction for different wave lengths of light. In cameras they use multiple lenses to solve the problem but in glasses, again you need the better quality material in the lenses. It is possible that your prescription is causing the rainbow pattern and if so, you need to discuss this with your doctor. Glasses sound simple but there is a lot of science in getting them to work right.
My eyes have always been very bad with very thick lenses needed. What I have now is the newer lenses that are light and thin and correct my vision perfectly. I also use the rimless frames so the glasses are so light now that I don't even notice them. The downside, as Dena said, is the cost. With frame and lenses the glasses were something over $700. I also have contacts for exercise but lately I have come to prefer these glasses because I see better with them.
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Lasik while wonderful will not cure all vision conditions. My spouse had it done about 15 years ago and loved that she didn't need glasses, for awhile. She was told that it cannot correct age related sight issues and she wears glasses again, just not as harsh a prescription as before. Given your circumstances you should discuss this with a surgeon.
Judi
Hmm, I didn't realize that it was possible to get thinner lenses by getting different materials. I'll have to look into that. Maybe I just have really crappy glasses. I'll try to go see an optometrist soon, though I've been seeing so many medical professionals lately it's becoming a burden to keep taking time out of work >.<.
I also still have one pair of astigmatism-reducing contact lenses that my old optometrist gave me to try a while back, and I broke them out a couple days ago and they worked pretty well today... I wasn't sure before because I got some pretty bad eye pain after wearing them for a day, but I think that was unrelated to the contacts themselves, because they were fine tonight when I tried them. I must have just scratched my eye or something.
There is another possibility for eye pain, HRT changed my eyesight which means the curvature of my eye changed. If you have been on HRT for a while, it's possible the contacts no longer fit correctly.
Lasik is in the news today, and not in a good way.
https://www.nytimes.com/2018/06/11/well/lasik-complications-vision.html
See, this is why I'm hesitant about Lasik. I've read that the regret rate is as high as 3% to 5%, which is a lot for something that isn't necessary.
There's a discussion about this on ->-bleeped-<- in the medicine sub. It's interesting because it's medical professionals discussing it, and is on the negative side.
Ok, so this is weird... I finally started Accutane, and along with extremely dry skin, one of the common side effects is that it can dry your eyes out and make it difficult or impossible wear contacts while you're on it, which is something I was afraid would happen to me. I definitely have the dry skin and am lathering on Cetaphil every six hours, but I haven't had any problems with my contacts. In fact, I think I might be able to see better with them now? I've been wearing them longer without my eyes getting tired lately, and they're not getting dislodged and causing "ghosting" as much. It's almost like my eyes were actually too wet before, causing them to slide around and grind against my eyes or go out of focus. I'll have to ask my doctors about this, I've never heard of this being a side effect of Accutane before. My face may feel like garbage, but my eyes have felt great for the last few days.