Article for Women Issues

As we age
the lens in our eye starts to lose its elasticity
and the muscles that control the lens shape get weaker
resulting in a form of farsightedness called presbyopia. There are several other factors besides age that can accelerate the onset of presbyopia
including eye injury
diseases such as diabetes or multiple sclerosis
drug use
gender (women tend to get it at a younger age than men)
and occupation (if your job requires a lot of close up work
presbyopia may occur sooner). While you may be able to control some of the risk factors
there is no known way to prevent presbyopia and it is considered part of the natural aging process. If you find yourself having to hold books and other reading material farther away from you to read it
you may be developing presbyopia and need bifocal vision correction. Contact lenses are now available for people who need bifocals and after a discussion with your eye care professional
you can decide if contact lenses are the right choice for you.

Bifocal contact lenses are available across the whole range of contact lens materials
from rigid gas permeable (RGP) lenses
to traditional soft contact lenses
to the new silicon hydrogel soft contact lenses
which allow much more oxygen to reach the eye. They are also available across the spectrum of wear schedules
from the RGPs which can last several years
to daily disposables.

The location of the distance and near correction in bifocal contact lenses varies with style. Some
called aspheric
have near and distance correction dispersed around the contact lens
and the eye will learn to use the part it needs at the correct time without you being aware of it. In others
called concentric
one type of correction is found in the middle of the contact lens
while the other kind of correction encircles it around the outside of the lens. Translating lenses work much like bifocal glasses
with one type of correction on the top
and the other on the bottom. Another option for people with presbyopia is to have the different corrections in different eyes
called monovision. In other words
in one eye you would wear a prescription to correct nearsightedness
and in the other
you would wear on to correct farsightedness. You will probably not even notice the difference
and because the lenses are less specialized
it may be more economical to purchase contact lenses this way if it is a style that works for you.