Symptoms:

Adult cataracts develop slowly and painlessly. Vision in the affected eye or eyes slowly gets worse.

• Mild clouding of the lens often occurs after age 60, but it may not cause any vision problems.
• By age 75, most people have cataracts that affect their vision.

Visual problems may include the following changes:

• Being sensitive to glare
• Cloudy, fuzzy, foggy, or filmy vision
• Difficulty seeing at night or in dim light
• Double vision
• Loss of color intensity
• Problems seeing shapes against a background or the difference between shades of colors
• Seeing halos around lights

Cataracts generally lead to decreased vision, even in daylight. Most people with cataracts have similar changes in both eyes, although one eye may be worse than the other. Many people with this condition have only mild vision changes.

Other symptoms may include:

• Frequent changes in eyeglass prescription

Signs and tests:

A standard eye exam and slit-lamp examination are used to diagnose cataracts. Other diagnostic tests are rarely needed, except to rule out other possible causes of poor vision.