Cataract Symptoms

Having cataracts is often compared to looking through a foggy windshield of a car or through the dirty lens of a camera. Cataracts may cause a variety of complaints and visual changes, including blurred vision, difficulty with glare (often with bright sun or automobile headlights while driving at night), dulled color vision, increased nearsightedness accompanied by frequent changes in eyeglass prescription, and occasionally double vision in one eye. Some people notice a phenomenon called "second sight" in which one's reading vision improves as a result of their increased nearsightedness from swelling of the cataract. A change in glasses may help initially once vision begins to change from cataracts; however, as cataracts continue to progress and opacify, vision becomes cloudy and stronger glasses or contact lenses will no longer improve sight.

Cataracts are usually gradual and usually not painful or associated with any eye redness or other symptoms unless they become extremely advanced. Rapid and/or painful changes in vision are suspicious for other eye diseases and should be evaluated by an eye-care professional.