What It’s Really Like to Get Eye Injections

The treatment for my eye problem sounded horrifying but has become one of the most common protections against blindness

Fern Reiss,

AARP

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Published April 14, 2026

Stylized pop-art graphic of a medical syringe reflected in a blue eye

Intravitreal eye injections have been performed since the mid-2000s to treat myriad eye conditions, including the author’s diagnosis of retinal macular edema.

Remie Geoffroi

“You need eye injections” are not words you want to hear from your doctor.

I knew something was wrong with my eyes. Something beyond my usual myopia. Something beyond the eye floaters that had plagued me for years, resembling nothing so much as little black trucks careening drunkenly back and forth across my field of vision. Now there was suddenly something new obscuring my eyesight. In recent weeks, I’d regretfully swapped my trusty contact lenses for Coke-bottle multifocal glasses, but that helped only a smidgen. I was guessing the doctor’s diagnosis wouldn’t be good.

But injections? Into my eye? Ick.

“There’s good news and bad news,” the doctor said after I did OCT (optical coherence tomography) and OCT-angiography scans, noninvasive and painless imaging tests.

The bad news was the diagnosis of macular edema: blood vessels leaking into the part of my retina known as the macula, causing it to swell and blur my vision. One of the common causes of this is diabetes, but the good news was that I didn’t have diabetes; my edema was caused by my extreme nearsightedness.

The other piece of good news was that since 2006, intravitreal eye injections have successfully treated myriad eye conditions, including AMD (age-related macular degeneration) and diabetic retinopathy. Ophthalmologists in the U.S. have performed millions of these procedures, with many patients receiving the injections regularly for the rest of their lives to manage chronic eye issues.

But still: ick.

Many people are squeamish about their eyes. Although not nearly as common a phobia as fear of heights, there is a name for the fear of eyes and anything to do with touching them: ommetaphobia. For us squeamish folk, eye injections sound downright horrifying. But the treatment is now so common as to be everyday fare.

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Intravitreal treatments involve a medical professional injecting medication directly into the vitreous cavity in the back of the eye, which is filled with a jelly-like fluid. In my case, the drugs reduce new blood vessel growth and swelling.

The procedure starts with numbing the eye (and sometimes eyelid) with anesthetic drops. Then the eye is cleaned with an antibacterial solution. Some doctors clamp on an eyelid speculum to keep the eyelid firmly open during the brief procedure; others use their fingers to pry your eyelids open. Then the doctor injects the medicine into the white part of the eye via a small needle. (Not small enough, in my opinion.)

“This won’t hurt, though you might feel some pressure,” the specialist said, poised over me.

“Like when a truck runs you over, right?” I said. “No pain, just pressure.”

That was the last joke I made for a while.

How the procedure feels depends on how you experience pain. If you’re the type of person who doesn’t mind blood draws or having cavities filled at the dentist, you’ll likely breeze through this. If you’re the person who faints in medical situations, you probably won’t fare as well.

Truthfully, the “ick” factor of the procedure is much greater than the pain it causes: The pain itself is momentary and not tremendous. If you’ve been through childbirth, you won’t bat an eye.

The whole experience, including the various eyedrops, took less than 10 minutes. After it was over, they told me to rest a few minutes in the waiting room before leaving. Good thing my husband was there to drive me home; between my dilated eyes and the procedure, I could barely find my way to the chair in the waiting room.

The local anesthetic lasts for about 30 minutes, after which your eyes may experience mild discomfort and dryness. And many people experience the bothersome feeling of something in their eye for hours or days after the injection. Don’t rub at your eye, though; this feeling gradually dissipates.

While infections, inflammation, vitreous hemorrhage and retinal detachment are possible complications, they are very rare. Less rare is a small bleed (subconjunctival hemorrhage) at the site where the needle entered; this will heal within a week. More common is mild eye discomfort, increased floaters, decreased vision and increased sensitivity to light; for those, consult your doctor.

Also, no showering or rinsing your eyes right after the procedure. My doctor told me to return in five weeks to get another imaging test; this is standard. If the treatment is effective, most people will need a series. (Yes, the reward for success here is more treatments.) And yes, I was scared to ask how many were required for me. Consult your doctor: Most people return every one to three months.

Now there are even newer treatment options, including injections required only twice a year, and gene therapy that is in preliminary trials. Johns Hopkins Medicine researchers report that as many as 30 percent of people with age-related macular degeneration can eventually stop this eye treatment without further vision loss. The injections improve vision in 1 of every 3 patients, and allow more than 90 percent of patients to maintain their vision.

No one wants to hear they need eye injections, but for those facing vision loss, they can help keep the future in sight.

AARP essays share a point of view in the author’s voice, drawn from expertise or experience, and do not necessarily reflect the views of AARP.

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Fern Reiss writes funny health, business, travel and political essays for publications including HuffPost, Newsweek, Business Insider, Nature and Smithsonian. She is working on a memoir.