What is presbyopia?
Presbyopia is the age-related loss of the ability to focus on close objects, caused by the natural lens inside the eye becoming less flexible. It affects almost everyone eventually, including people who have had laser eye surgery.
- Subject
- Vision problems
- Topic
- Presbyopia & reading vision
- Kind of question
- What is…
- Last reviewed
- 22 September 2026
In more detail
It is not a disease and not a complication of anything. It is the lens doing what lenses do with age, and it is why reading glasses become necessary in the forties for most people.
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It is one of 483 answers in the vision and eye health knowledge base, filed under Vision problems & prescriptions in Presbyopia & reading vision . The subject page carries the answers either side of it, and the hub is searchable.
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- Condition Presbyopia
This information is for educational purposes and does not replace an examination by a qualified eye-care professional.
General answers cannot tell you what is happening in your own eyes. Only an examination by a qualified ophthalmologist can do that.
Sources & further reading
We prefer primary sources. Where a claim comes from a manufacturer, a single study or a regulator, it is labelled as such below.
- Eye Health Information
Condition-by-condition eye health information from a US government research institute, written for patients rather than for clinicians.
Used for Plain-language explanations of eye conditions and their symptoms; Healthy vision and screening guidance.
Link checked 23 September 2026
- EyeSmart: eye health information for the public
Patient-facing material from the largest ophthalmology professional body, covering conditions, tests and treatments outside refractive surgery.
Used for Cross-checking patient-facing explanations of non-refractive eye conditions; Describing what tests such as dilation and OCT involve.
Link checked 23 September 2026